“People find us because everyone has the same problem,” says Malay Kundu (MBA 2003) of his company, StopLift, which is using software and video technology to stop massive losses in retail profits due to theft and checkout fraud.

“Retail inventory shrinkage is a tough problem to solve,” says Kundu, who started StopLift in 2003 after studying the matter as a student at Harvard Business School. Now with a staff of 200, the Cambridge, Massachusetts–based software company is deploying its ScanItAll Checkout Vision Systems to foil a wide array of fraud at the check-out counter, and in doing so, is changing the game for retailers as it turns millions of dollars in losses back to profits for clients on four continents.

Kundu is also changing the game outside his industry—for children in India, especially—thanks to the success he’s had in his business life. His charity, the Kundu Foundation, has, since 2006, provided major funding for Antyodoy Anath Ashram, an orphanage in Kolkata that has saved the lives of hundreds of children. The orphanage, which was first established nearly 30 years ago, currently serves more than 100 children, employs 30 caregivers, teachers, and administrators, and runs a school, a small farm and greenhouse, a pharmacy, and a shrimp farm—all of which are intended to give the children an education, vocational skills, and food.

“The opportunity to help people makes me feel good,” says Kundu. “It gives me a higher purpose. It’s hard to put into words. I’m grateful to be able to help.”

(Published January 2017)

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