Neobank Open 100th Indian unicorn; IIFL leads $50-mn funding

Open was founded in 2017 by former PayU and Citrus Pay senior management member Anish Achuthan, along with his wife Mabel Chacko and brother Ajeesh Achuthan. In May 2018, the company raised $2 million in its pre-Series A round from leading venture capitalist funds and Yes Bank. While Anish is the CEO, Chacko is the chief operating officer and Ajeesh the chief technology officer of Open. The company has a fourth co-founder Deena Jacob, who is the chief financial officer.

Prior to founding Open, Anish Achuthan founded payment startup Zwitch, contactless mobile payment startups Cashnxt Technologies and Neartivity Wireless, and mobile value added services startup iFuturz Wireless. Speaking on the latest fund-raise, he said: “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 offers a neobanking platform that integrates all the tools used by small businesses and integrates it with the business current account. It processes over $30 billion in annualised transactions, and has raised over $140 million in funding till date.

While Open has become the 100th startup in India to achieve a billion dollar valuation, it is the 14th startup this year to do so. Other prominent startups to have turned unicorns this year include Mamaearth, Dealshare, Lead School, Livspace, CredAvenue and Xpressbees.