The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tech firm’s sightsseton second-hand mobile sector
ROLL-OUT: Dundee engineers combine to launch IntelliBox system in UK market
Two former NCR Dundee workers are hoping to corner the UK market for the sale of second hand mobile phones with the roll-out of a national network of smart kiosks.
Entrepreneurs Som Sinha and Ranjith Suresh set up IntelliBox in 2014 and secured venture capital funding to develop their system.
The built-in scanning technology behind the kiosks is capable of assessing the condition of a second-hand mobile within two minutes.
It takes into account the model and age of the phone and whether it has any dents, scratches and cracks before coming to a purchase value.
The kiosk then offers to buy the phone from the customer for a fee that can be paid directly into the owner’s bank account.
Alternatively, customers can receive a redeemable Amazon gift voucher or arrange for the value of their phone to be donated to charity.
The value for IntelliBox is in the cash it can raise by recycling the deposited phones.
Mr Suresh said IntelliBox had proven out its concept and was now looking to expand.
The firm currently has kiosks in various shopping malls up and down the country.
While the Scotland network is small – there are kiosks at St Enoch’s in Glasgow and at centres in Aberdeen and Falkirk – Mr Suresh said the firm wants to expand its presence and is eyeing opportunities in Dundee and Perth.
“We have got about 40 Intelliboxes throughout the country at the moment,” Mr Suresh said.
“The good news is there is lots of interest in the system as it is immediate for the customers, there’s no posting or packaging or anything like that.
“The plan is to roll-out throughout the country.”
Intelliboxes outsources the manufacturing of its kiosks to a supplier in Greece and its UK-based team has grown to five members of staff.
Mr Suresh completed his Masters at Dundee University and spent 16 years in various project roles at NCR’s base in the city.
It was while working there that he met his eventual business partner, but Mr Sinha left NCR in 2008 and it was a chance meeting of the pair some years later that led to Intelliboxes being born.