KSUM-backed Fintech Startup Raises $100m from Global Firms

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
A fintech startup mentored by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) has raised $100 million investment from major global firms, including Internet giant Google, taking the total sum raised so far by the firm to $137 million.

Open, a neo-banking platform for SMEs, netted this huge investment, amounting to more than Rs 753 crore, in a Series C financing to accelerate its future plans.

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek led the round, and Google and Japan’s SBI Investment, as well as existing investors Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital participated in it.

Founded by Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko, Deena Jacob and Ajeesh Achuthan in 2017, the startup has partnership with over a dozen top banks in India.

Commenting on the investment, John M Thomas, CEO, KSUM, said that it’s a major achievement for a startup from the state. “It shows that our startups are highly competent to attract investment from big global players. This also comes as an encouragement for promising startups in our ecosystem,” he said.

“We are delighted to have Open in our startup ecosystem and I congratulate the founders on achieving new heights. We are certain that the firm will come up with more critical solutions for the fintech sector,” Shri Thomas added.

Anish Achuthan, Cofounder and CEO, Open, said the firm plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen and accelerate its new product lines – Zwitch, an embedded finance platform and BankingStack and the cloud-native SME banking platform for financial institutions. Its technology is currently deployed at over 15 banks in India.

“We are helping banks build their own new-age digital banking platforms and also offering solutions to other fintech startups to build their embedded finance, and the current round of funding has come at the right time”, he said.

Open’s platform has already grown to over one lakh SMEs and processes over $ 5 billion in transaction. The platform also adds over 20,000 SMEs every month, making it the fastest growing SME focused neo-banking service globally.

Open, which employs about 500 people, is planning to expand to international markets such as Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S. The funding of Open is the latest in a series of investments made by Google in India in the past one year.

KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.