open: Govt tags Open as 100th unicorn

May 3, 2022

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BENGALURU: India is inching nearer to hit the unicorn century. Bengaluru-based neobank Open has entered the unicorn membership after it raised $50 million led by IIFL together with current traders Temasek, Tiger World and 3one4 Capital. Final yr, the SME-focused neo-banking platform raised $100 million led by Temasek with participation from Google and SBI Funding, one among Japan’s main enterprise capital companies.
Although media reviews stated Open turned India’s one centesimal unicorn, information for Enterprise Intelligence confirmed that India has 96 unicorns until date minting 14 new unicorns within the first 5 months of this calendar yr. A few of the media reviews have factored in Zoho and Zerodha as unicorns. Nevertheless, the 2 tech companies haven’t raised exterior capital until date.
Minister of commerce and trade Piyush Goyal tweeted, “India hits a century in fashion! Bengaluru-based startup turns into nation’s one centesimal Unicorn. India = Concepts + Innovation + Investments,” he stated.
Anish Achuthan, co-founder & CEO of Open, stated, the neobank didn’t elevate cash for capital, however was taking a look at a strategic companion to broaden its lending portfolio to SMEs. The funding can be deployed to speed up Open’s current product strains Zwitch, its embedded finance platform, and BankingStack, enterprise banking answer for banks, drive world growth and attain over 5 million prospects inside the subsequent one yr from the two.3 million at the moment. Open is concentrating on to disburse $1 billion in lending by means of the brand new suite of merchandise on the platform within the subsequent 12 months. Achuthan stated the funds will even be used to strengthen the management crew and broaden its worker base from 500 to 1,000 inside the yr.
India’s march to one centesimal unicorn has an fascinating mixture of enterprise, fintech, gaming, logistics, edtech, healthcare and client tech startups making it to the startup roster. India’s Ethereum scaling platform Polygon has raised about $450 million not too long ago that took its valuation to Bengaluru and US-based open-source engine Hasura has raised $100 million in a funding spherical led by Greenoaks that values the corporate at $1 billion.
India’s startup ecosystem has added extra firepower turning into the third-largest hub globally after the US and China. India has greater than 61,400 startups. Nevertheless, regulatory bottlenecks have led to a flight of startups to Dubai, Singapore and the US in areas like crypto and gaming. Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSPIRT (Indian Software program Product Trade RoundTable), stated its information signifies that 34 of the 90 unicorns should not domiciled in India. “This can be a huge challenge for the long run well being of the startup ecosystem. Extra lively steps must be taken to resolve pending gadgets within the stay-in-India guidelines. “
He stated over time, an increasing number of startups have been specializing in the India market. “At current 58 of the 90 unicorns are solely India-focused. Over the following few years, as the usage of India Stack turns into extra prevalent, the prominence of Bharat market-based startups will develop quickly. Lots of new health-tech startup unicorns will emerge. They’ll be a part of fintech startups to erode the dominance of e-commerce startups within the unicorn listing proper now,” Sharma added.



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