How Zomato-style apps are reshaping savings

There's a certain appeal with the new-age investment platforms that young investors find hard to ignore

- SHELLEY SINGH

When 24-year-old Rajesh Swarup went hunting for a fixed deposit (FD), he wanted a better interest rate than the one his bank was offering. A friend sent him a link to Stable Money, a marketplace that lets users compare FDs across banks and non-banks and book them without having to open an account with each institution. He booked an FD with Suryoday Small Finance Bank, via Stable Money.

Many youngsters like Swarup are flocking to new-age platforms — Groww, Scripbox and KreditBee are some others — as they explore their investment, credit and wealth-creation goals. "It also appealed to me as it was like ordering food from Zomato," said Swarup, a Gurgaon-based marketing consultant.

For Swarup, the proposition felt almost too neat — one app, multiple FD issuers, quick onboarding and easy comparisons of FDs across banks. The process didn't involve checking different bank apps or the familiar plea, 'please open an account first'. He filled in the KYC (know your customer) details, transferred the money directly to the bank, and soon received confirmation from the bank itself.

Simpler, cheaper

That captures a larger shift in India's wealth landscape. Platforms built to sell mutual funds or make stock trading intuitive are now expanding their portfolio and reach among new investors.

The number of startups increased from 244 in 2023 to 279 in 2024, due to a post-covid surge, before cooling down to 134 as startups faced a funding squeeze amid unrealistic valuations.

Sidharth Diwan, partner, financial services, PwC India said: "New-age investing and trading platforms have essentially done to wealth management what UPI did to payments—made it simpler, cheaper, and more democratic. They've shifted the industry from a relationship-driven world to technology-driven, which can be accessed by anyone from anywhere."