Bengaluru-based neo-banking startup Open has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek. The round also saw Google and Japan-based SBI Investment participation, valuing the startup at around $500 million.
Open, which focuses on small and medium enterprises, will use the funding to strengthen and accelerate its new product line, including its embedded finance platform, Zwitch and cloud-native banking platform, BankingStack.
Founded in 2017 by Aneesh Achuthan, Ajeesh Achuthan, Mable CHako and Deena Jacob, the startup in Feb 2019 raised $5 million in Series A from 3one4 Capital, Beenext and Speedinvest. In the same year of June, Open had raised around $30 million in its Series B round that Tiger Global led.
In February 2020, Open processed around $11 billion-plus transactions, claiming India’s largest neo-banking platform. In four years, we have become the world’s fastest-growing neo-banking platform helping nearly 2 million SMEs,” said co-founder and CEO Anish Achuthan.
At present, BankingStack is deployed across 15 Indian banks, the company said. The fintech platform is also looking to expand its base to 5 million SMEs across Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US markets.
Open offers a neo-banking platform that integrates with current business accounts of SMEs and allows them to collect and track payments, make salary payouts while helping in accounting and intelligent expense management.
“We also look to cater to over 5 million SMEs by August 2022,” said Anish Achuthan, chief executive officer, Open.
Neo-banks have been around in India since 2013, soon after RBL and YES banks made their APIs public to other developers for building cutting-edge financial services. They don’t have any physical branches.
In 2021, neo-banking platforms have raised close to $173.5 million. These platforms exist in partnership with traditional banks and attract a broader range of audiences as they are built keeping the fast-changing aspects of running a business in mind.
