Sankaet Pathak is an Indian-American businessman and entrepreneur known for founding the robotics startup Foundation, Inc. and the fintech company Synapse Financial Technologies. He currently serves as the CEO of Foundation, Inc.
Early life and education Sankaet Pathak grew up in Rajasthan, India. He attended the University of Memphis, where he studied computer engineering, mathematics and physics. He graduated with a master's degree in electrical engineering. In 2014, he was an inaugural Crews Center Entrepreneurship Fellow at the FedEx Institute of Technology.
Career
Synapse Financial Services While living with roommates in Twin Peaks, San Francisco, Pathak founded the banking as a service (BaaS) platform Synapse Financial Technologies. The company was originally founded to provide banking services to traditionally underbanked customers.
The company launched in 2014 and raised $51 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz. It partnered with around 100 financial technology companies including Dave and Honey, and indirectly provided banking services to an estimated 10 million retail customers. In 2022, the company was listed as one of the 100 fastest growing financial services companies in the United States by Inc. Magazine.
According to a Forbes article from 2020, former Synapse employees reported Pathak was an autocratic and volatile manager, who often hired inexperienced people for lower salaries and maintained a non-professional work environment. Employees reported that the technology could be unreliable or broken as a consequence. Forbes also reported customers were leaving, as Patak's "short fuse, poor judgment and bad management practices have left Synapse with its future in jeopardy." The board of Synapse considered replacing Pathak in 2023 due to complaints about discrepancies in the company's ledgers of customer funds, but investors from Andreessen Horowitz argued against this.
In 2024, after ten years of operations, the company filed for bankruptcy. Tens of thousands of customers were found without access to funds for an extended period. Due in part to inadequate ledgering, a shortfall of $65m to $95m was reported to be missing. As of 2026, reimbursement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Civil Penalty Fund is pending.
Foundation, Inc. In April 2024, Pathak co-founded Foundation, Inc., also known as Foundation Future Industries, Inc., with entrepreneurs Arjun Sethi and Mike LeBlanc. It is a humanoid robotics startup, with a goal of producing autonomous humanoid robots capable of automating manual labor and being deployed in frontlines of war. The company launched an $11 million seed round, with investments led by Tribe Capital.
After launching Foundation, Pathak appeared on the Forbes' list of the "Biggest Career Comebacks Of 2024".
References