Open Financial Technologies enters unicorn club, launches neobank for MSMEs

Bengaluru, May 4 (KNN) Open Financial Technologies has become the 100th startup to enter the unicorn club and has announced a joint venture (JV) with Non Banking financial company IIFL Finance Ltd to launch a neobank for MSMEs. 

The name of the JV would be IIFL Open Fintech Private Limited and the composition between IIFL Finance and Open is 51:49 with initial capital of Rs 120 crore. 

The JV is expected to be a profitable fintech in the first year itself with 1 million customer mark reached within a year’s time and USD 2 billion lending book is likely to be created in 2 years.

Commenting on the JV, Nirmal Jain, Founder, IIFL Group and MD, IIFL Finance said, “The neo-banking that this JV proposes to offer, will meet requirements of both sides and drive financial inclusion and economic growth for MSMEs at bottom of the pyramid.”

Anish Achuthan, Co-founder and CEO, Open said, “The JV can add a lot of synergies to Open as we are getting ready to launch innovative products like revenue-based financing, early settlement, working capital loans and business credit cards on the Open Money platform."  (KNN Bureau)