Here’s a problem that millions of Indian businesses lived with quietly for decades: traditional banks simply weren’t built for them. The paperwork was designed for large corporates. The products were irrelevant to SMEs. The experience was painful, slow, and often humiliating.
Mabel Chacko decided to build something better.
As co-founder and COO of Open Financial Technologies — India’s first neobank for businesses — Mabel identified that small and medium enterprises weren’t asking for charity or special treatment. They were asking for systems that actually worked. Banking that understood how businesses move money, pay vendors, manage expenses, and grow.
Open built exactly that. A single platform combining current accounts, payments, payroll, expense management and accounting — designed from the ground up for Indian businesses, not retrofitted from a corporate banking model.
The response was extraordinary. Open now powers over 3 million businesses across India. And when it became India’s 100th unicorn, it wasn’t just a valuation milestone — it was validation that the country’s businesses had been waiting for exactly this.
Mabel’s approach is deeply practical. She didn’t build for headlines. She built for the business owner who was spending hours on bank reconciliation when she should have been growing her company. She built infrastructure. Quietly, systematically, one business at a time.
Before the category had a name. Before banks adapted. She built the system.
Written by Solvia Media & Legal
The Echelon Journal tells the stories of India's most influential founders, creators and leaders.
