Neo-banking platform Open raises $100 million from Temasek

Neo-banking platform, Open, which is focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has raised $100 million from the Singapore-based investment giant, Temasek. The funding round also saw participation from tech giant Google and SBI Investment, the asset management arm of the Tokyo-based financial services firm, SBI Holding. Existing investors Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital also participated in the round.

Open said that it plans to use the funding to further strengthen and accelerate its new product lines ---- 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 four years, we've grown from strength to strength to be the fastest growing SME neo-banking platform globally. 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," Anish Achuthan, CEO, Open, said in a statement.

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Open is one among many neo-banking platforms, which have emerged out of India over the past few years, to help banks, non-banking financial corporations digitise their services and provide them with cutting-edge fintech solutions. The SME segment in India, on the other hand, is a huge market but where the banking solutions are still executed in a traditional manner and has an untapped opportunity.

Pranav Pai, Founding Partner and CIO of 3one4 Capital, said that the team at Open have combined deep domain expertise and product-focused rigour to deploy a full-stack solution that places SMEs at the center of a universe of innovation. "This platform has set the standard for business banking and will take this full stack approach into new adjacencies and geographies. We are excited to continue our partnership as Open scales into a global fintech innovation engine, " he said.

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Open was founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs, Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko, and Ajeesh Achuthan, along with ex-TaxiforSure CFO Deena Jacob. The start-up claims to be one of the world's fastest growing SME-focused neo-banking platforms, powering close to 20,00,000 SMEs, processing over $20 billion in transactions annually, and claims to add 90,000 new SMEs every month.

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