Open becomes 100th unicorn of India, raises $50 million in Series D round led by IIFL

Open, a neobanking platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), has raised $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion, sources revealed. This makes it the 100th unicorn to emerge from India, marking a seminal moment for the Indian startup ecosystem.

The Series D round was led by IIFL and also saw participation from existing investors Temasek, Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital. The round was majorly a primary raise, with a small secondary component. The company is also the 16th unicorn of 2022.

The round comes just six months after Open raised $100 million led by Google, Temasek, Visa, and Japan's SoftBank Investments. The compay's valuation post the last round was $500 million, and the valuation has doubled with this round.

Founded in 2017 by former PayU and Citrus Pay executives Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan, along with Deena Jacob, Open focuses on small and medium-sized businesses by offering them a business current account. The account includes services like digital banking, payments, invoicing, and automated bookkeeping services.

Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan are second-time founders and became a part of Citrus Pay and later PayU after their first startup Zwitch Payments was acquired by Citrus Pay in 2015. Open is also one of the rare unicorns with two women co-founders.