BEYOND BROKING: WHAT NEXT FOR GROWW?

The stockbroker has the highest number of active users in India and is profitable. But it wants to do much more

- Madhurima Nandy

The last month or so has been a busy one for Yash Pathak, 27, a Mumbai-based cricket commentator on digital media channels, as India won match after match in the world cup. That dream run ended on Sunday, when the Australians effortlessly beat the Indian team in Ahmedabad. In another field, however, Pathak’s players continue to perform satisfactorily—last year, with his income rising, he felt the need to expand his investments beyond mutual funds. So, he started investing in stocks through Groww, a discount stockbroking platform.

Pathak first heard of Groww through a friend. “I was unaware of how these platforms work. I was confused between a couple of them, but then took a leap of faith and downloaded Groww. It took 30-35 minutes to finish the entire account opening process, including uploading my documents," Pathak says. Separately, he also opened an account with Zerodha, Groww’s rival, on his mother’s phone, registering it in her name.

“For a first-timer like me, Groww has the easiest user interface. I would watch their Youtube videos and browse through their content before I invested in the initial two-three stocks. The experience has been very satisfactory so far," he said. In less than two years, Pathak has built a portfolio of blue chip stocks, along with short-term and mid-term horizon stocks.

Pathak is one of the millions of Indians who make up Bengaluru-based startup Groww’s expanding customer base. The discount stockbroker made headlines in September when its active user count hit 6.63 million, toppling Zerodha, which counted 6.48 million, from the top spot, as per National Stock Exchange (NSE) data. By October-end, Groww had 6.76 million active investors while Zerodha was at 6.47 million. Zerodha, however, is still the largest in terms of revenue.