Bangalore-based and Google-backed business-focused neo-banking platform Open has acquired Finin, a consumer-focused neo-banking startup. The deal was completed at $10 million and with the acquisition, Open is looking to deepen relationships with banks as well as widen its offerings.
According to Open and Finin, the deal was completed in both cash and stock. The acquisition will see Finin’s core executives including its founder and CEO Suman Gandham, move to Open. The acquisition of Finin complements Open’s broader offerings, Open’s co-founder and CEO Anish Achythan said in an interview.
Open, which is backed by big companies Google and Temasek, runs an SME banking platform. It provides banks with the means and infrastructure to launch their digital banks. Currently, Open counts more than a dozen banks using its infrastructure to offer bank services and has partnerships with 14 Indian banks and others across some countries in Southeast Asia.
On the other hand, Finin is one of the first consumer-focused neo-banking startups in India and since its launch in 2019, the startup has done well raising about $1 million from India Ventures and others. Finin provides users with a savings account enabling people to save and invest their money.
Open’s co-founder and CEO Anish Achythan in his interview added that “Finin complements our offerings to banks. We will now help banks launch their own consumer-focused neo-banking offerings under their own brand names. There are many banks that are looking to launch their own modern platforms”.
Although Open has acquired consumer-focused Finin, its focus will still be on businesses. “Direct-to-consumer is not in our DNA. But as part of our SME offerings such as payroll management, we may complement some B2C features”, CEO Anish Achythan said.
Speaking on Finin’s acquisition by Open, founder and CEO Suman Gandham said in a statement that “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”.
“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”, he added.
