India now has a Century of Unicorns

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India now has a Century of Unicorns
04 May 2022
6 min read

News Synopsis

On Monday, Neobank Open informed that it has become the 100th Indian startup to become a unicorn.  A startup is said to become a Unicorn after its valuation crosses $1 billion. While the startup claims to be the 100th unicorn, a Venture Intelligence report stated that it is the 96th company to become a unicorn. In a Press release, Neobank said that this happened after it in its latest Series D round, it raised around $50 million. This fundraising round witnessed the participation of  IIFL along with existing investors Temasek, Tiger Global, and 3one4 Capital.

Neobank Open was founded in the year 2017 by Anish Achuthan, Ajeesh Achuthan, Mabel Chacko, and Deena Jacob. It provides business banking, payments, and expense management services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. The startup claims to have over 2.3 million SMEs. Annually it processes transactions over $30 billion.

The startup further claims to add over 100,000 SMEs to its clientele every month. Anish Achuthan, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Open, in a press note,  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.”