ETtechBengaluru: Neobanking startup Open has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, along with participation from other new investors like tech major Google, card operator Visa and Japan's SBI Investment.
The fundraising will close in the coming weeks, a person directly aware of the matter said.
Post this funding, Open is valued at $500 million compared to around $150 million in its previous funding round. Open’s existing investors Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital have also participated in the financing. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Open.
Anish Achuthan, cofounder and CEO, Open told ET, he plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen and accelerate its new product lines – Zwitch, the embedded finance platform and BankingStack, the cloud-native SME banking platform for financial institutions which is currently deployed at over 15 Banks in India.
Also Read: Neobanks, the next evolution of banking
“We look to expand our product range over the coming months in embedded finance and enterprise banking. We are also looking to cater to over 5 million SMEs by August 2022,” he added. The company, which is adding 90,000 new SMEs to its platform each month, plans to expand to global markets like Southeast Asia, Europe and the US.
The new products are among the reasons the strategic investors have joined the funding round. Prior to the funding, Open saw a near ten-fold growth over the last 18 months as the pandemic pushed digital adoption by small businesses. The company will use the capital to strengthen its leadership team and plans to hire around 800 people across functions like technology, product and business teams.
Founded in 2017, Open offers its neobanking platform that integrates all the tools used by small businesses and integrates it with the business current account. “We now have around two million SMEs on our platform and are processing over $20 billion in annualised transactions,” Achuthan said.
Open competes with other neobanks such as Jupiter, RazorpayX, and Niyo. Amazon and Paytm are also making nascent forays in this space.
The fundraising will close in the coming weeks, a person directly aware of the matter said.
ET first reported in June that strategic players like Google and Visa were in talks with the company for the investment round and that a sovereign wealth fund is likely to lead the round.
Post this funding, Open is valued at $500 million compared to around $150 million in its previous funding round. Open’s existing investors Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital have also participated in the financing. Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Open.
Anish Achuthan, cofounder and CEO, Open told ET, he plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen and accelerate its new product lines – Zwitch, the embedded finance platform and BankingStack, the cloud-native SME banking platform for financial institutions which is currently deployed at over 15 Banks in India.
Also Read: Neobanks, the next evolution of banking
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“We look to expand our product range over the coming months in embedded finance and enterprise banking. We are also looking to cater to over 5 million SMEs by August 2022,” he added. The company, which is adding 90,000 new SMEs to its platform each month, plans to expand to global markets like Southeast Asia, Europe and the US.
The new products are among the reasons the strategic investors have joined the funding round. Prior to the funding, Open saw a near ten-fold growth over the last 18 months as the pandemic pushed digital adoption by small businesses. The company will use the capital to strengthen its leadership team and plans to hire around 800 people across functions like technology, product and business teams.
Founded in 2017, Open offers its neobanking platform that integrates all the tools used by small businesses and integrates it with the business current account. “We now have around two million SMEs on our platform and are processing over $20 billion in annualised transactions,” Achuthan said.
Open competes with other neobanks such as Jupiter, RazorpayX, and Niyo. Amazon and Paytm are also making nascent forays in this space.
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