World’s fastest growing SME neo-bank announces Middle East expansion

Open, a neo-banking startup which offers business banking solutions for startups and SMEs, has announced that it will expand into the Middle East market.

The Indian company was founded in 2017, and is the first SME focused neo-bank in Asia. A neobank is a solely digital bank which only deals with customers via technology platforms like apps as opposed to opening branches.

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The news broke at Money20/20 Asia in Singapore this week, where a key theme was how fintech can fill gaps not currently taken care of by traditional banks: from underserved markets like the Middle East, to underserved customers such as SMEs.

Open is the fastest growing SME neo-bank globally, adding over 10,000 SMEs each month. Currently, it powers payments for over 30,000 businesses. Now, it will expand this service into the Middle East which has over 17mn SMEs, a number of which are moving to online tools.

Open will be able to offer these businesses a payment platform as well as APIs to integrate banking into business workflows. Soon, Open will look to introduce its own card.

Anish Achuthan, Co-Founder and CEO of Open, said: “While the growth of SMEs in the Middle East looks promising, we aim to solve some of their key problems by offering them a one-stop solution to manage their business finances effectively rather than using multiple tools. The launch of other products like the Open card will also help businesses automate their finances.”