Open becomes India's 100th Unicorn; Piyush Goyal exclaims 'India hits a century in style'

Bengaluru-based neobanking startup Open has become the country's 100th unicorn as it raised $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion from India Infoline Finance Limited (IIFL). The Series D round was led by IIFL and saw participation from existing investors Temasek, Tiger Global, and 3one4 Capital. The round was majorly a primary raise with a small secondary component. This came six months after Open raised $100 million led by Google, Temasek, Visa, and Japan's SoftBank investments. 

Reacting to the achievement, Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal praised the team on Koo. He said, "India Hits A Century In Style! Bengaluru-based startup become country’s 100th Unicorn. India = Ideas + Innovation + Investments."

Anish, Ajeesh Achuthan, Deena, Mabel, and the incredible team at Open have combined deep domain expertise and product-focussed rigour to deploy a full-stack solution that places small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) at the centre of a universe of innovation. This platform has reimagined business banking and will now take this full stack approach into new adjacencies and geographies. 

More about Open

The platform is gearing up for the launch of three new products aimed at enhancing the capital needs of SMEs apart from its existing SME banking and credit card offerings. The new products include Open Flo – an innovative revenue-based financing product for eCommerce businesses, Open Settl – an early settlement credit offering, and Open Capital – a working capital lending offering for SMEs. Open is targeting to disburse $1 billion in lending through the new suite of products on the platform, in partnership with financial institutions and corporations in India.

Open identified this opportunity in the SME business finance segment early and is amongst the largest SME neo-banking platforms in India, processing USD 30 billion in transactions annually and powering business payments for over 2.3 million SMEs. This milestone has also been celebrated by the Minister of Commerce of India, Piyush Goyal, as a major event in the Indian startup ecosystem. 3one4 has been an early partner since the Series A and has invested in every round since. We are thrilled to continue our partnership as Open scales into a global fintech innovation engine.

Image: PR/PTI