Startup Street: Open joins the unicorn club; Bodhi Tree invests $600 mn in Allen Career

Neobanking fintech Open turned unicorn after it raised $50 million in its Series D funding round from IIFL, along with existing investors Temasek, Tiger Global, and 3one4 Capital. With this round, Open is now valued at $1 billion, having doubled its valuation during its last fundraise in October 2021. The venture plans to launch three new products — Open Flo, Open Settl and Open Capital — targeting a disbursement of $1 billion in the next 12 months. To elaborate on these plans, Startup Street spoke to Co-founder and CEO of Open, Anish Achuthan.

Bodhi Tree Systems, backed by Uday Shankar — former President of the Walt Disney Company — Asia Pacific and former chairman of Star and Disney India — and James Murdoch, has acquired a significant minority stake in Kota-headquartered Allen Career Institute. Bodhi Tree will be investing $600 million in Allen. The Maheshwari family-owned Allen Career Institute is one of India’s largest coaching institutes that prepares students for entrance exams in multiple streams. To talk about the acquisition and the future roadmap at Allen, Startup Street spoke to wholetime executive Keshav Maheshwari.

Dental Tech startup Toothsi has raised $40 million in its Series C funding round from leading global investment firm Eight Roads Ventures, South Korea-based Paramark, IIFL, and the family office of Medlife Co-founders — Prashant Singh and Tushar Kumar. Existing investors Think Investments and the Mankekar Family office also participated in this round along with select independent angel investors, including Aditya Puri, Former Managing Director of HDFC Bank; and Karan Singh, Managing Partner of Bain & Company’s India Offices. To talk about Toothsi’s fund allocation plans and future roadmap, Startup Street spoke to the Co-founder and CEO, Arpi Mehta Shah.