Open has acquired consumer neo-banking startup Finin for $10 million as the Bangalore-based, Google-backed business-focused neobanking platform looks to broaden its offerings and deepen relationships with banks.
The deal involves both cash and stock, the two said. Launched in 2019, Finin is among the first consumer-focused neobanking startups in India. The startup, which had raised about $1 million from Unicorn India Ventures and others, will see key executives including the founder and chief executive Suman Gandham move to Open.
Anish Achuthan, co-founder and chief executive of Open, told TechCrunch in an interview that the acquisition of Finin compliments Open’s broader offerings.
Open, which recently received the backing from Google and Temasek, operates an SME banking platform and also provides banks with infrastructure to launch their own digital banks. Over a dozen banks today use Open’s infrastructure to offer their banking services. Open currently has partnerships with 14 banks in India and a few more in Southeast Asia.
Finin offers a savings account that allows consumers to save and invest their money.
“Finin complements our offerings to banks. We will now help banks launch their own consumer-focused neobanking offerings under their own brand names,” he said. “There are many banks that are looking to launch their own modern platforms.”
Open still plans to continue to focus on its enterprise offerings to banks and isn’t looking to launch a consumer-focused neobanking service, he said. “Direct-to-consumer is not in our DNA,” he said. “But as part of our SME offerings such as payroll management, we may complement some B2C features.”
“When we first launched Finin, I promised my squad that we would make a hallmark in the fintech industry, and show Indian consumers what neo-banking can really do for them,” said Gandham in a statement.
“Now with the acquisition by Open, I’m absolutely convinced that we are speeding towards that goal. The outcome of a consumer-facing neo-banking platform working hand-in-hand with a B2B neo-banking platform is going be exemplary as we will be able to add a lot of value to Open’s SMEs wanting to open salary accounts for employees, expose consumer banking rails to fintechs using Open’s embedded finance platform Zwitch, and also add value to banks wanting to launch digital banking propositions using Open’s cloud native digital banking OS BankingStack.”
