Fintech startup Open raises $250k from PayU India executives

Adding to the coffer of Fintech industry in the country, Bengaluru-based fintech start-up Open has raised $250,000 from PayU India CEO Amrish Rau and MD Jitendra Gupta.

The start-up offers digital banking, invoicing, moving money, bookkeeping and many other services to micro-entrepreneurs. As per the company’s statement, the capital will be used for branding and expansion of the 12-member team.

Anish Achuthan, CEO and co-founder of Open said that the capital raised will be used for expansion. Before starting his venture he worked in PayU as Business Head PayU Money-SME.

"We want to provide a complete solution for micro-entrepreneurs, freelancers and startups with only a handful of employees to manage their business banking and also offer analytics. We aim to reach about 10,000 such small entrepreneurs in six months," said Anish Achuthan.

Open was founded by Anish Achuthan and his wife Mabel Chacko in May 2017. The couple happened to be a serial entrepreneur, who previously co-founded start-ups like Cashnxt, Neartivity Wireless and Zwitch. Cashnext got a fame of India’s first contact-less mobile payment startup. And Zwitch, a developer payment platform that enables developers and businesses to seamlessly accept payments on their website or mobile, with a few lines of code, got acquired by Citrus Pay in 2015.

Anish was previously part of the founding team of PayU in India as an Associate Director (Products) while Mabel has domain expertise in mobile, internet and payment related technologies. She is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Commenting on funding, PayU India CEO Amrish Rau said, “Small businesses and entrepreneurs have started moving to app-based banking, and Open offers a whole range of services."

Open is tying up with a private bank for backend account servicing and has also partnered with a GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) to offer small businesses help in filing invoices under the new GST regime. The company will also tie up with an NBFC to offer lending products to these businesses.

Other start-ups who are engaged in providing banking and payment solution in India are FINO PayTech, ItzCash, Mswipe, Citrus Pay, Transerv, PayMate, Ezetap, BankerBay, including others.