Ramendra Mandal : Waging A Relentless Battle To Build, Enhance & Preserve Consumer Trust
Ramendra Mandal
Founding Member
His second career phase took him deep into B2B enterprise software, where he scaled businesses like Informatica and Qlik from scratch, driven by his handson, funda-mentals-first approach. The third act of his journey began with a leap into the startup ecosystem. He joined Ezetap during the FinTech boom to pivot its business model and lay the foundation for scalable growth in the B2B segment. Today, at Ciphercode, he channels this eclectic experience and entrepreneurial spirit into building AI-powered solutions to restore, enhance, and preserve consumer trust in brands.
Engaging in an immersive interaction with CEO Insights magazine, Ramendra shares his vision, future roadmap, and much more. Let's read about it.
Could you tell us more about Ciphercode?
At Ciphercode, we are tackling one of the world’s largest and most pressing challenges, counterfeiting, illicit trade, and IP infringement, across both physical and digital realms. With the global impact of counterfeit goods exceeding $2 trillion annually, we aim to restore consumer trust, which we believe is the most valuable brand asset.
The Ciphercode platform, Brandwise, empowers businesses to build, enhance, and preserve consumer trust through product digitization to prevent counter- feits (using digital product certificates protected by cryptography, permissioned blockchain, for product authentication and track & trace), campaign automation, persona- lized customer engagement, and Omnichannel Loyalty Program.
Finally, we enable brands to be compliant with personal data protection regulations, through Content Management, Data Security, and Governance.
How do you encourage innovation within your team?
For me, fostering innovation begins with cultivating a culture that encourages curiosity, debate, and problem solving from first principles. I always urge my team to break problems down to their core components and question the fundamentals, rather than blindly following industry norms or assumptions. I believe that innovation thrives when people are empowered to ask ‘why’ and ‘what if’ without fear.
What recent technological solutions have you imple- mented to address customer challenges?
We are building the next-generation Ciphercode platform using AI-agent-based architecture to solve key customer trust challenges. Our solution automates three pillars of trust. First, we enhance trust through competence and consistency by maintaining golden records and orchestrating seamless omni- channel experiences and deepen empathy via dynamic segmentation and hyper -personalized recommendations. Second, we preserve trust by driving retention with real-time, contextual campaigns and a unified loyalty program. Third, we protect trust by combating counterfeit threats and proactively managing brand reputation through sentiment monitoring and transparent communication around ESG or crisis events.These AI-driven capabilities help brands build, preserve, and safeguard consumer trust at scale.
What approach do you follow to identify the right partners or market leaders for successful collabo - rations?
In my experience, successful partnerships are rooted in mutual trust, respect, and shared commitment to genuine innovation. For me, the first sign of a healthy collaboration is when both parties view each other as equals willing to contribute, share, and grow together. I look for partners who are not just market leaders in scale, but in vision, those who understand that true innovation means solving real problems, not just following trends or replicating what's worked elsewhere. If we are not driven by the same principles,
How do you encourage innovation within your team?
For me, fostering innovation begins with cultivating a culture that encourages curiosity, debate, and problem solving from first principles. I always urge my team to break problems down to their core components and question the fundamentals, rather than blindly following industry norms or assumptions. I believe that innovation thrives when people are empowered to ask ‘why’ and ‘what if’ without fear.
In today’s unpredictable world, while economic shifts and disruptions are inevitable, we help companies retain, enhance, and preserve consumer trust to safeguard and streng- then their brand reputation
What recent technological solutions have you imple- mented to address customer challenges?
We are building the next-generation Ciphercode platform using AI-agent-based architecture to solve key customer trust challenges. Our solution automates three pillars of trust. First, we enhance trust through competence and consistency by maintaining golden records and orchestrating seamless omni- channel experiences and deepen empathy via dynamic segmentation and hyper -personalized recommendations. Second, we preserve trust by driving retention with real-time, contextual campaigns and a unified loyalty program. Third, we protect trust by combating counterfeit threats and proactively managing brand reputation through sentiment monitoring and transparent communication around ESG or crisis events.These AI-driven capabilities help brands build, preserve, and safeguard consumer trust at scale.
What approach do you follow to identify the right partners or market leaders for successful collabo - rations?
In my experience, successful partnerships are rooted in mutual trust, respect, and shared commitment to genuine innovation. For me, the first sign of a healthy collaboration is when both parties view each other as equals willing to contribute, share, and grow together. I look for partners who are not just market leaders in scale, but in vision, those who understand that true innovation means solving real problems, not just following trends or replicating what's worked elsewhere. If we are not driven by the same principles,
whether it’s integrity customer focus, or a desire to make a meaningful impact, it becomes difficult to build anything lasting.
What emerging opportunities and market avenues do you foresee in the near future?
I see foundational market shifts shaped by cloud computing lowering experimentation costs, cheaper and faster internet in consumers' hands (5G/6G), more powerful and cheaper hardware for the development of innovative AI tools and techniques for wider adoption. With these foundational shifts, brands will grow faster, riding on burgeoning consumer aspirations and innovative, personalized offerings.
However, these rapid changes have also created a trust deficit between brands and consumers. Issues like fake products, deep fake reviews, and data misuse have eroded consumer trust in brands.
At Ciphercode, we see a huge opportunity to help brands rebuild, enhance, and preserve consumer trust. We aim to provide the tools and platforms that enable the brands to achieve this at an unprecedented speed and scale. In my view, customer trust will be the next big battleground, and those who get it right will be the market leader.
Ramendra Mandal, Founding Member, Ciphercode
Ramendra Mandal, Founding Member of Ciphercode Tech Solutions is an IIT Kanpur alumnus. He began his career at ITC, where he gained hands-on expertise in manufacturing operations, before successfully scaling B2B enterprise software businesses like Informatica and Qlik in leadership roles and then pivoting into the exciting world of startups.
•Hobbies: Fitness and stress management, Jungle trekking, Community work in Facilities Management (RWA member)
•Favorite Cui - sine: Bengali, Italian, Korean
•Favorite Book: Zero to One by Peter Thiel, The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb, Our Films, Their Films by Satyajit Ray, Mahabharater Kotha by Buddhadeb Basu
•Favorite Travel Destination: Historical sites in Italy, Greece, France, Czech Republic, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
•Awards and Recognition: S.M. Bose Gold Medal, Jadavpur University, National Award for Best M. Tech Thesis (ISTE), Dean’s List & Gold Medal (AIM Manila), President’s Club Awards –Siebel (2005),Qlik (2012), Informatica (2022), NASSCOM DeepTech Club Recognition for Ciphercode (2024)
What emerging opportunities and market avenues do you foresee in the near future?
I see foundational market shifts shaped by cloud computing lowering experimentation costs, cheaper and faster internet in consumers' hands (5G/6G), more powerful and cheaper hardware for the development of innovative AI tools and techniques for wider adoption. With these foundational shifts, brands will grow faster, riding on burgeoning consumer aspirations and innovative, personalized offerings.
However, these rapid changes have also created a trust deficit between brands and consumers. Issues like fake products, deep fake reviews, and data misuse have eroded consumer trust in brands.
At Ciphercode, we see a huge opportunity to help brands rebuild, enhance, and preserve consumer trust. We aim to provide the tools and platforms that enable the brands to achieve this at an unprecedented speed and scale. In my view, customer trust will be the next big battleground, and those who get it right will be the market leader.
Ramendra Mandal, Founding Member, Ciphercode
Ramendra Mandal, Founding Member of Ciphercode Tech Solutions is an IIT Kanpur alumnus. He began his career at ITC, where he gained hands-on expertise in manufacturing operations, before successfully scaling B2B enterprise software businesses like Informatica and Qlik in leadership roles and then pivoting into the exciting world of startups.
•Hobbies: Fitness and stress management, Jungle trekking, Community work in Facilities Management (RWA member)
•Favorite Cui - sine: Bengali, Italian, Korean
•Favorite Book: Zero to One by Peter Thiel, The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb, Our Films, Their Films by Satyajit Ray, Mahabharater Kotha by Buddhadeb Basu
•Favorite Travel Destination: Historical sites in Italy, Greece, France, Czech Republic, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
•Awards and Recognition: S.M. Bose Gold Medal, Jadavpur University, National Award for Best M. Tech Thesis (ISTE), Dean’s List & Gold Medal (AIM Manila), President’s Club Awards –Siebel (2005),Qlik (2012), Informatica (2022), NASSCOM DeepTech Club Recognition for Ciphercode (2024)