Neo-banking platform Open raises $100 million from Temasek, Google, others

Small business-focused neo-banking platform Open on Tuesday said it has raised USD 100 million (about Rs 750 crore) in a funding round led by Singapore’s Temasek. Google and Japanese venture capital fund SBI Investment also participated in the round, along with existing investors Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital, as per a statement.

The Bengaluru-based company aims to strengthen its leadership in the SME neo-banking space, taking the total base from the present 2 million to 5 million in India and expand its services to Southeast Asia through the funds.

The funding will also be used to strengthen and accelerate its new product lines like embedded finance platform Zwitch and Bankingstack, the cloud-native SME banking platform for financial institutions, which is currently deployed at over 15 banks in India, the statement said.

Apart from this, the money raised will be utilised to strengthen the leadership team and hire over 800 people across technology, product and business teams.

The company is processing USD 20 billion in transactions annually and powering business payments for close to 2 million SMEs currently, according to the statement.

“Over the last four years, we’ve grown from strength to strength to be the fastest-growing SME neo-banking platform globally,” its chief executive Anish Achuthan said.

He also said over the next year, it will grow its base to 5 million SMEs and expand to global markets like Southeast Asia, Europe and the US.

“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 a universe of innovation,” 3one4’s partner and chief investment officer Pranav Pai said.

Founded in 2017 by Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan, along with ex-Taxiforsure chief financial officer Deena Jacob in Bengaluru, Open offers a neo-banking platform that combines all the tools used by small businesses and integrates it with the business current account.

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