INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Of the 1.3 billion people who live in India, more than 100 million of whom are using digital payment apps each day, only about 20 million
today invest in mutual funds and stocks
An Indian startup that is betting on changing that figure by courting millennials has just received a big backing.Groww, a Bangalore-based
startup, said today it has raised $21.4 million in a Series B financing round that was led by United States -based VC firm Ribbit Capital
Existing investors Sequoia India and Y Combinator also participated in the round, said the two-year-old startup that has raised about $29
million to date.Groww allows users to invest in mutual funds, including systematic investment planning (SIP) and equity-linked savings
The app, which maintains a very simplified user interface to make it easier for its largely millennial customer base to comprehend the
investment world, offers every fund that is currently available in India.Lalit Keshre, co-founder and CEO of Groww, told TechCrunch in an
interview earlier this week that the market of mutual funds is increasingly widening in India and the startup is hoping to accelerate its
growth with the fresh capital
two-thirds of whom are first-time investors, Keshre said
Groww is currently free to use and does not charge any commission on transactions
The startup eventually plans to offer a paid service as it looks to monetize its user base, but Keshre declined to share a timeline on how
soon that would happen.Groww will also soon begin to offer the ability to purchase stocks from its eponymous app, said Keshre, a former
executive at Flipkart who co-founded Groww with three other Flipkart colleagues (Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal).In a statement,
number of investments in India in recent months
Last month, it invested in Cred, a startup that is trying to improve the financial behavior of credit card holders, and BharatPe, a
payments solution for businesses.In recent years, a number of startups such as INDWealth and Cube Wealth have emerged in India to offer
Many established financial firms such as Paytm have also expanded their offerings to include investments in mutual funds.Ashish Agarwal, a
through financial advisors, who were mis-incentivized to sell high-commission products
Groww is taking a refreshing approach with a zero-commission mobile first model, enabling investors to make their own investment choices
