Zerodha competitor, the Bengaluru-based online investment platform Groww, has received $30 million in its Series C funding led by Y Combinator’s YC Continuity fund — the growth-stage investment fund of Y Combinator. The platform’s existing investors, Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital and Propel Ventures took part in this investment round too.
The new injection of funds sums up Groww’s total investment to date to $59 million. The company aims to introduce millennials to the world of finance, encouraging them to place bets in mutual funds and stocks through its tech-driven stock broking platform.
The startup’s app offers a simple user interface so that even finance novices can get a hang of how the world of investment works. Using the app, users can invest in mutual funds, SIP investments, and equity-linked savings. Moreover, Groww has also expanded its offerings to provide users with the chance to buy stocks of Indian firms and digital gold in recent months. Now, the company aims to include American stocks in its list of offerings as well, to simplify the world of the Wall Street.
Groww was founded in 2016 by Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal, who were all former executives at Flipkart. The company claims that it has 8 million registered users on its platform, with over 200,000 users having bought stock using its facilities.
With this investment, Groww will work on expanding its footprint in the country, as well as including new offerings.
Lalit Keshre, Co-founder and CEO of Groww in an interview with Economic Times said, “We will be using the proceeds to build many more products, teams, infrastructure… For now, we are focused on the stock investing platform and are looking to scale that. We also plan to launch international equities, where people can invest in US stocks”.
YC Continuity fund is a growth stage investment fund by the American seed fund firm Y Combinator. It usually looks to invest $20 million to $100 million in YC alumni companies. Its portfolio includes the likes of Gusto, Instacart, Stripe, Monzo and DoorDash.
Anu Hariharan, Partner at YC Continuity, said in a statement, “We believe Groww is building the largest retail brokerage in India. At YC, we have known the founders since the company was just an idea and they are some of the best product people you will meet anywhere in the world. We are grateful to be partners with Groww as they build one of the largest retail financial platforms in the world”.
Online Stock Broking is currently witnessing massive popularity in the Indian Market, and Groww does not want to be left out of the heated competition. Zerodha currently leads the market, and is a story in itself as it reached this mark without racing any external financing. Other players include ETMoney, INDWealth and Cube Wealth in the Indian online stock broker market.
