Bengaluru based fifth year Neobank startup Open has reportedly raised $50 Mn in series D round of funding lead by IIFL Finance. Existing backers Temasek, Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital also upped their funding.
While the exact amount of capital attracted by the neo-finance startup was not revealed, sources close to the company provided a ballpark of around $50Mn. With this freshly obtained investment, the firm’s valuation has crossed the $1Bn mark, making it India’s 100th unicorn startup, a club which was kickstarted way back in 2012 by InMobi.
Open, founded in 2017 by Anish Achuthan, Ajeesh Achuthan, Mabel Chacko, and Deena Jacob, is a Neobank that provides small and medium enterprises across the country with business, banking and payment services and helps them integrate all their banking needs on one platform. The concept of Neobanks, as the term itself suggests, is in its primal state and is slowly gaining acceptance in India’s finance ecosystem.
Anish Achuthan, Co-founder and CEO said,”We are excited to partner with IIFL and existing investors Tiger Global, Temasek and 3one4 Capital for our series D round. We see a lot of synergies with IIFL especially on leveraging the lending book, as we are getting ready to launch innovative products like revenue-based financing, early settlement, working capital loan and business credit cards to SMEs on our platform” Open’s partnership with IIFL Finance could prove to be of strategical benefit considering the latter’s expertise in finance.
With this latest round of investment, Open plans to double it’s headcount from 500 to 1,000, and also plans to expand its customer base from 2.3 Mn to 5 Mn over the next one year. The firm is already working on three new products to bolster their finance service lineup, which include Open Flo (revenue-based financing product for ecommerce businesses), Open Settl (an early settlement credit offering) and Open Capital (working capital lending offering for SMEs.)
The company’s current competitors in India are Jupiter, Razorpay X, Niyo among others. Open acquired Finin, a smaller consumer-centric Neobank service, late last year.
