SoftBank-Backed Fintech Start-Up Open Becomes India's 100th Unicorn With Fresh Funding

In a Series D funding round, Open raised $50 million from IIFL, Singaporean state holding firm Temasek, American investment company Tiger Global, and another Indian firm 3one4 Capital

Anish Achuthan, one of the founders of Open. Image: LinkedIn

Source : LinkedIn

New Delhi: Open, a neobanking fintech portal, became unicorn on Monday after it raised fresh capital which pushed up its value over a billion dollars.  

The Bengaluru-based start-up, which is has become India’s 100^th unicorn, has tweeted about the development.

🦄 The Indian startup ecosystem just hit a century today!
We are super excited to become the 💯th Unicorn from India. 🥳

But before that here's the #Unicorn🧵summarizing our journey so far👇 pic.twitter.com/FsfSOpK5Bp

— Open Money (@BankWithOpen) May 2, 2022

According to news reports, in a Series D funding round, the five-year-old neobank raised $50 million from IIFL, Singaporean state holding firm Temasek, American investment company Tiger Global, and another Indian firm 3one4 Capital. This funding has helped Open to cross the $1-billion valuation mark.

This fresh funding comes only six months after Google, Temasek, Visa, and Japan’s SoftBank invested $100 million in Open.

The companies which have over $1 billion in valuation are called unicorns.

According to Economic Survey 2021-22, India is ranked just after the US and China, which added 487 and 301 unicorns respectively, and the country has overtaken the UK to reach the third spot in terms of unicorns.

A total of 44 Indian start-ups achieved unicorn status as of January 2022. This took the overall tally of start-up unicorns to 83. The survey showed that with a total valuation of $277.77 billion, most of the start-ups are in the services sector, contributing over 50 per cent to India’s GDP.

Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko, and Ajeesh Achuthan have founded Open. The firm, which works towards automating business finances for small and medium firms, claims to power over 23 lakh SMEs with over $30 billion in annualised transactions.

Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal has also lauded Open’s achievement. In a tweet he said, “India has hit a century in style!”

India Hits A Century In Style! 💯

Bengaluru-based startup become country's 100th Unicorn.🦄

India = Ideas + Innovation + Investmentshttps://t.co/KcNQMIEokA

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 2, 2022

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology, in his tweet said that India is one of the world’s fastest growing and most exciting start-up ecosystems.

India is one worlds fastest growng n most exciting startup ecosystems

With 100 unicorns a new milestone in #NewIndia journey

and another 1000 unicorns to come ...@_DigitalIndia @startupindia 🇮🇳https://t.co/PupYOtlQ2G

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) May 2, 2022

Industry body NASSCOM, which also lauded the announcement, said, “India’s tech start-ups are championing India Inc focused on innovation, tech impact and job creation.”

Heartiest congratulations to @BankWithOpen on entering the #Unicorn Club. India's #tech #startups are championing India Inc focused on #innovation, tech impact & #job creation. Industry & govt collaboration, digitalization & tech adoption will catapult this growth in the #Techade https://t.co/qyeNnjiyyd

— NASSCOM (@nasscom) May 2, 2022

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, PayTm founder, said it the idea of 100 unicorns in India had looked over ambitious when it was pitched. However, India is has become land of opportunities and vibrant ecosystem.