Google, 3one4 Capital, and Temasek invest Rs 453 cr in neo-bank Open

Existing investor Tiger Global also participates in Series C round; Open claims to be one of the country's largest SME banking platforms; last Feb it had processed $11 bn in transactions

Neo-bank player Open has raised Rs 453 crore in Series C round of funding from Temasek, Google, and existing investors Tiger Global Management and 3one4 Capital.

According to the regulatory filings, Temasek has invested around Rs 254 crore, Google has invested 108.6 crore, Tiger Global has invested Rs 54.75 and 3one4 Capital has invested around Rs 36 crore.

The company in the filing said that these shares offer price was Rs 9.09 lakh a piece and has offered 20 equity shares and 4,991 Series C compulsory convertible cumulative participating preference shares.

“In view of the expansion and growth of the business, the company requires additional financial resources,” said the company in the regulatory filing.

Open was founded in 2017 by Aneesh Achuthan, Ajeesh Achuthan, Mable CHako and Deena Jacob. The company claims to be one of the largest SME banking platform in the country. In February of 2020 the company had processed $11 billion in transactions.

Some of its early investors include Unicorn India Ventures, Trifecta Capital, BEENext. In June of 2019, Open had raised around $30 million in its Series B round that was led by Tiger Global, Tanglin Venture Partners Advisors. Existing investors 3one4 Capital, Speedinvest and BetterCapital AngelList Syndicate also participated in the round.

Neo banks are digital banks that have no physical branches. They offer services like payments, lending, credit, and savings. Neo banks partner with banks. Some of the prominent Neo bank players include Open, RazorPayX, Niyo among others.