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Meet the woman who failed thrice before building India's 100th Unicorn startup. 1. After graduating from IIM Bangalore, Mabel Chacko wanted to start India's first biometric payment interface. In 2006, she began Touch2pay and launched the technology in the remote villages of Gujarat. But there was a challenge. 👇 2. There were no technology resources to build it in a Tier 2 city. Additionally, reaching out to investors and banks became another battle altogether. After a year, Mabel tried her luck with founding Cashnxt, a contactless payment solution, but she failed again. ❌ 3. Mabel decided to move to a new city with all the resources. In 2009, she started Neartivity Wireless in Bangalore and launched Simpaise, a platform using NFC technology with an external secure element chip that worked on any smartphone. This time, she tasted some success. ✅ 4. Neartivity became one of the top 75 startups to bet on by Dare Magazine, but building the technology was still hard. After three attempts, she came on to her fourth by launching Zwitch - India's first developer-focused payment platform in 2012. And magic happened. 🪄 5. Within three years, Zwitch worked with 3000 business clients and conducted 10 CR transactions monthly. On 20th October 2015, Zwitch was acquired by Citruspay, a leading fintech startup that closed a 25 million dollar series C funding round two days ago. 💰 6. But she was not done. During Citruspay, she saw that startups could not manage their expenses. Business banking was a broken piece. Mabel decided to solve this and started her fifth startup with Anish, her husband and co-founder from the previous three. In May 2017, Open Financial Technologies was born.🚀 7. The idea was simple⏩ Build Asia's first neobank for startups, offering zero-cost current accounts, invoicing and an automated bookkeeping tool. Within two years, it processed transactions worth 14,000 CR and served 30,000 startups. On 6th February 2019, it raised 35.8 CR and became a 100 CR company. 📉 8. Open added 20,000 clients every month and grew to an 85-person team across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Within six months, it served 100,000 SMEs and startups and processed over 35,000 CR transactions. On 25th June 2019, it raised 208 CR, led by Tiger Global, at a valuation of 3860 CR. 💵 9. 80% of Open's services were entirely free, and it expanded more quickly than its competitors to Corporate Cards, UPI Autopay, and API-driven Simplified Payouts. As it scaled to 23 lakh customers, the big moment came on 2nd May 2022. 👇 Open raised 383 CR from IIFL and became India's 100th unicorn, valued at 7650 CR. 🦄 10. Today, Open processes 35 billion dollars of transactions annually, serving over 35 lakh businesses. At a market share of 30%, it has partnered with 15 of the top 20 banks in India. 💪 ➡️ From leaving her home in Ahmedabad after failing twice to powering Open to become India's 100th unicorn, Mabel Chacko is an inspiration.