Open Launches Business Debit Card in Partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank & Visa

Business banking platform for SMEs and startups, Fintech startup- Open launched business debit card in partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank and Visa. Equitas Small Finance Bank Limited (the “Bank”), is the largest small finance bank ("SFB") in India in terms of number of banking outlets as of March 31, 2019 (Source: CRISIL Report). Open was the first SME-focused neobanking platform in India and is the first fintech to launch a business debit card in India.

The business debit card will be offered along with the business current account Open offers to small businesses in partnership with Equitas Small Finance Bank. The debit card comes integrated with a suite of tools to help small businesses automate their expenses, vendor payouts and subscriptions. Further, the debit card also helps business owners separate their personal and businesses expenses.

Founded in 2017, Open is solving business banking challenges by offering a business banking platform which helps SMEs and startups automate and run their finances effectively. Open has all the tools that help businesses send and receive payments combined with automated accounting and bookkeeping, expense management and developer-friendly APIs to help SMEs integrate banking into their business workflows. The Open platform today has already grown to over 650,000 SMEs and processes over USD 15 billion in annualised transactions. The platform also adds over 45,000 SMEs every month, making it the fastest growing SME focused business banking platform globally.

Commenting on this partnership, Anish Achuthan, Co-founder & CEO, Open said, “The new business debit card enables entrepreneurs to make online purchases for their business and is key for smooth financial operations of an organization. We are excited to partner with Equitas and Visa to launch the  first of its kind business debit card in India issued by a fintech to help SMEs manage their business finances seamlessly”.

Mr. Murali Vaidyanathan, President & Country Head - Branch Banking, Liabilities, Product & Wealth, Equitas Small Finance Bank Ltd., said, “Equitas SFB is happy to be associated with Open Financial Technologies. With focus on the B2B and MSE segments it gives us an opportunity to boost our current accounts portfolio. We believe that this partnership along with various other product offering of Equitas SFB will be helpful in catering to the customer needs.”

Arvind Ronta, Head of Products, India and South Asia Visa stated, “The ongoing pandemic has increased the awareness of the benefits of digital payments amongst SMEs, a key contributor to India’s economy. While this has accelerated their digitization, it is now more than ever that we need to develop solutions to help SMEs streamline operations and increase efficiency. Hence, in sync with Visa’s global commitment to elevate and digitally empower the MSME sector by offering easily accessible solutions, we are delighted to partner with Open and align its capabilities to enable small merchants to enhance their efficiencies.”