 "Google, Temasek back Indian neo-banking firm Open with $100 mn investment")
Open, an SME-focused neo-banking platform, has raised Rs 735 crore ($100 million) in a Series C round. The funding was led by Temasek and saw participation from Google and SBI Investment, one of Japan’s leading venture capital firms. Existing investors Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital also participated in the round. According to the sources, the funding takes the valuation of Open to about $500 million.
Open plans to use the funding to further strengthen and accelerate its new product lines. This includes Zwitch, its embedded finance platform and BankingStack, the cloud-native SME banking platform for financial institutions which is currently deployed at over 15 Banks in India. Over the next one year, Open will expand its base to 5 million SMEs and expand to global markets like South East Asia, Europe and the US.
“Over the last 4 years, we’ve grown from strength to strength to be the fastest-growing SME neo-banking platform globally,” said Anish Achuthan, CEO, Open. “Our product offerings have helped nearly 2 million SMEs in the Indian market and we’re just getting started. We look to expand our product range in the coming months in embedded finance and enterprise banking. We also look to cater to over 5 million SMEs by August 2022.”
The funds will be also used to strengthen the leadership team and plans to hire over 800 people across technology, product and business teams.
Founded in 2017, Open offers a neo-banking platform that integrates all the tools used by small businesses and integrates it with the business current account. The Open platform today powers close to 2 million SMEs and processes over $20 billion in annualized transactions. The platform also adds over 90,000 SMEs every month, making it the fastest-growing SME-focused neo-banking platform globally.
Pranav Pai, Founding Partner and CIO of 3one4 Capital, said the team at Open have combined deep domain expertise and product-focused rigour to deploy a full-stack solution that places SMEs at the centre of innovation. “This platform has set the standard for business banking and will take this full-stack approach into new adjacencies and geographies,” said Pai. “We are excited to continue our partnership as Open scales into a global fintech innovation engine.”
Avendus Capital advised Open on the deal.
Open plans to use the funding to further strengthen and accelerate its new product lines. This includes Zwitch, its embedded finance platform and BankingStack, the cloud-native SME banking platform for financial institutions which is currently deployed at over 15 Banks in India. Over the next one year, Open will expand its base to 5 million SMEs and expand to global markets like South East Asia, Europe and the US.
“Over the last 4 years, we’ve grown from strength to strength to be the fastest-growing SME neo-banking platform globally,” said Anish Achuthan, CEO, Open. “Our product offerings have helped nearly 2 million SMEs in the Indian market and we’re just getting started. We look to expand our product range in the coming months in embedded finance and enterprise banking. We also look to cater to over 5 million SMEs by August 2022.”
The funds will be also used to strengthen the leadership team and plans to hire over 800 people across technology, product and business teams.
Founded in 2017, Open offers a neo-banking platform that integrates all the tools used by small businesses and integrates it with the business current account. The Open platform today powers close to 2 million SMEs and processes over $20 billion in annualized transactions. The platform also adds over 90,000 SMEs every month, making it the fastest-growing SME-focused neo-banking platform globally.
Pranav Pai, Founding Partner and CIO of 3one4 Capital, said the team at Open have combined deep domain expertise and product-focused rigour to deploy a full-stack solution that places SMEs at the centre of innovation. “This platform has set the standard for business banking and will take this full-stack approach into new adjacencies and geographies,” said Pai. “We are excited to continue our partnership as Open scales into a global fintech innovation engine.”
Avendus Capital advised Open on the deal.
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