iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Bengaluru-based wealth management platform, Groww on Thursday said that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding, led by Y Combinator’s growth stage fund, YC Continuity. The round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital and Propel Ventures.
Groww is YC Continuity’s first investment in India.
In India more than 150 million people use digital payment apps each month. In that, only about 20 million of them invest in mutual funds and stocks. Groww has discovered that opportunity gap where it can influence people to change the way they invest more conveniently.
Groww allows users to invest in mutual funds, including systematic investment planning (SIP) and equity-linked savings. The app maintains a very simplified user interface to make it easier for its largely millennial customer base to comprehend the investment world. It offers every fund that is currently available in India.
According to the startup, the capital will be utilized to strengthen Groww’s technology infrastructure, expand product suite and hire top talent across engineering, product and growth divisions.
The fundraiser comes exactly a year after Groww raised $21.4 million in Series B financing from Ribbit Capital, Sequoia India as well as Y Combinator.
“Over the last few years, we have made investing in mutual funds and stocks simple and transparent for millions of investors in India. If we look at the opportunity that lies ahead, it still feels like Day 1. We started our journey with small steps writing blogs and making videos to educate people about investing. YC played a key role in our early years and now this investment will help us accelerate towards our goals,” said Lalit Keshre, co-founder and CEO, Groww.
The three-year old platform offers stock broking and direct mutual funds to its consumers, and claims to have 8 million users on its platform. Currently, Groww witnesses more than 150,000 new SIPs being registered on its platform.
“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,” said Anu Hariharan, partner at YC Continuity.
Within three months of launch, the company’s stock broking business, Groww Stocks, is also witnessing more than 100,000 demat accounts being opened on a monthly basis, on its platform.
“India is seeing increased participation of retail investors in financial markets – with 2 million new stock market investors added in the last quarter alone. In the last two years, Groww has expanded their product offering and built a strong team in its journey to make investing simple for Indians”, said Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP.
At present, 60% of Groww users hail from Tier 2,3 cities, with 60% of its user base being first time investors.
Apart from mutual funds and stocks,the company also allows users to invest in US stocks and invest in Digital Gold on the Groww platform.
Groww also competes with the likes of Paytm Money, the wealth management arm of One97 Communications, and Bengaluru-based Zerodha.
Recently, Paytm Money said it has a registered user base of 6.6 million users on its platform, while on the other end Zerodha, which is one of the largest retail stock brokers in the country, has close to 3 million users on its platform. Zerodha also claims that it has been adding 250,000 users on a monthly basis to its platform.