Amazon, Google and Visa are ‘Open’ to neo-banking

Amazon, Google and card network major Visa are separately eyeing a stake in neo-banking startup Open, which is looking to raise a new round of funding of about $100-$120 million, two people aware of the matter said. If successful, Open’s valuation is likely to jump three times to around $600-700 million post the funding round, the sources said.

Even as negotiations with the global technology majors like Amazon and Google are underway, Open is also in talks with a leading sovereign wealth fund as well as private equity firm TPG as they look to participate in the funding round that could be oversubscribed, sources said.

“Visa is already a partner for Open and is in talks to participate in this round alongside Amazon and Google. The sovereign wealth fund may end up leading the new round,” one of the people mentioned above said. “There won’t be a conflict between Amazon and Google to invest together since neither of them are investing for a majority stake. The final contours are being worked out now and should be done over the next six weeks or so,” the person added.

Bengaluru-based Open has recorded a near ten-fold growth over the last 18 months as the pandemic pushed greater digital adoption by small businesses.

If the deal goes through, it would be significant for the neo-banking space, which has been a buzzword for over a year now. Amazon is currently building its own digital banking platform that’ll allow its local sellers to open current accounts, manage…

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