Bengaluru-based neobanking startup Open becomes the country’s 100th unicorn after raising $50 Mn from IIFL. The round also saw participation from its existing investors including Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, US hedge fund Tiger Global, and 3one4 Capital.
The fintech platform will use the fund to accelerate its existing product lines — Zwitch (embedded finance platform) and BankingStack (enterprise banking solution for banks), to drive global expansion, and reach over five million customers within the next year. Open will also use the capital to strengthen its leadership team, and increase its employee base from 500 to 1000 within the year.
Founded in 2017 by former PayU and Citrus Pay executives Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan, along with Deena Jacob, Open focuses on small and medium-sized businesses by offering them a business current account. The account includes services like digital banking, payments, invoicing, and automated bookkeeping services.
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The company claims to have over 2.3 million SMEs, which allows it to process transactions over $30 billion annually.
The platform is gearing up for the launch of three new products aimed at enhancing the capital needs of SMEs apart from its existing SME credit card offerings. The new products include Open Flo – an innovative revenue-based financing product for ecommerce businesses, Open Settl – early settlement credit offering and Open Capital – working capital lending offering for SMEs.
Open claims to power more than 2.3 million SMEs and process over $30 billion in annualized transactions. As per the press release, it targets to disburse $1 billion in lending through the new suite of products on the platform in the next 12 months.
“Indian MSMEs banking and credit delivery can be revolutionized by Open. We look forward to strengthening the partnership in multiple ways,” said R Venkatraman, Co-promoter, IIFL Group & Chairman, IIFL Securities.
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