In this episode of Voice of FinTech: Asia Pacific Series, Chia Jeng Yang, Principal of Saison Capital based in Singapore, speaks to Vaibhav Garg, Head of Business Strategy for Open, an Indian SME focused neobanking platform. Vaibhav is the Head of Business Strategy at Open and was a founder of multiple companies (Boro, Zopper and IndieHaat), ex-Dalberg Global Advisors consultant and an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay graduate.

Open is an SME-focused business banking platform, founded by serial entrepreneurs Anish Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan, along with ex TaxiforSure CFO Deena Jacob.

Founded in 2017, Open is one of the world’s fastest-growing SME-focused business banking platforms with over 800,000 SMEs, processing over USD 24 billion in transaction processing volume annually and adding 50,000 new SMEs every month. Open is backed by leading global investors like Tiger Global, Speedinvest, Beenext, raising $37 million in funding, and was recently featured among the top 100 fintech companies globally in the 2019 Fintech 100 Report by KPMG and H2 Ventures.

We talk about:

Open and its founding story
Key events and nuances in the Indian fintech scene and how it compares to other FinTech markets
Opportunities in the SME open banking space
Regulatory oversight and its role in embedded finance
Overlooked factors for investing and building in India Fintech