Fintechs have long been viewed as giant killers, aiming to disrupt all major components of the financial world, be it payments, lending, insurance, stock broking or wealth management. They are a catch-all for a new wave of transformative technologies and financial inclusion with enormous ripple effects. But rarely do we find one to engage in witty wordplay or burst into poetic storytelling to promote its core mission.

India’s biggest stockbroker, Groww, a startup barely a decade old but serving over 1.3 crore active investors (per NSE) across the country’s bourses, did just that in January this year. Its impact, as usual, is far-reaching yet simple. Since its launch in 2016, the customer-first fintech has demystified capital market investments and made them easy, fast and transparent. Its commission-free model has helped it tap into young, tech-savvy investors keen to explore the world of mutual funds and stock markets.

But behind this success lies a series of challenges that tested the platform’s ability to stay competitive, grow exponentially and navigate an increasingly crowded and regulated market.

Consider this. India had 5.6 Cr (56 Mn) unique mutual fund investors by the end of December 2024, according to the Economic Survey 2024-25. In contrast, the US had approximately 121.6 Mn individual MF investors in 2024 across 71 Mn households or 53.7% of all U.S. households.

Additionally, financial literacy is just 24%, per the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) survey. Given these ground realities even now, helping small investors build wealth by betting on India’s economic growth was no easy task when Groww was set up by four senior executives from Flipkart — Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal.

Keshre, an electrical engineer from IIT-Bombay, had already ventured into entrepreneurship and launched an edtech startup, Eduflix, in 2011. Jain, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, dabbled in storytelling with his short-lived startup Runjhun Stories in 2008.

Singh, with a solid decade of engineering expertise and Ishan Bansal, a CFA and chartered accountant with extensive exposure to corporate development and M&A, completed the team.

While at Flipkart, Keshre and the other three saw firsthand how technology and a sharp focus on the customer experience transformed e-commerce in India. However, the financial services space was still opaque due to complex operations and limited access to information. Although 60% of household savings in India were held in financial assets then, just about 1.3% of the population engaged in the stock market compared to approximately 27% of the U.S. population investing in equities.

As for mutual funds, there was a glaring gap. Of nearly 200 Mn Indians with investable incomes, only 20 Mn actively invested in those during 2016-2018. Undoubtedly, there was a huge opportunity to simplify how Indians buy financial products.

The collective vision was clear. The four founders wanted to democratise investing for every Indian. They built a full-stack financial services platform focussing on mutual funds, stocks, futures, options, initial public offerings (IPOs) and wealth management. Since 2022, Groww is also offering instant credit to eligible customers and building a loan book worth INR 1K Cr.

Groww’s Journey: The Opportunity & The Primary Building Blocks

Financial services in India have always been sold, posing high entry barriers and confusing processes. We believed this could be solved with the principles of internet companies — simple, user-centric products, transparency and choice.

Groww was initially launched as a direct mutual fund distributor in 2016. The timing was, indeed, fortuitous. The country’s growing digital finance ecosystem, powered by UPI and Aadhaar-based e-KYC, made customer onboarding faster and digital payments seamless. Again, affordable smartphones and internet access transformed financial inclusion. It was a golden opportunity to onboard the next 180 Mn investors.

However 2020 was a turning point for Groww. It marked the beginning of an era when people became more financially aware. Before that, concepts around capital markets were overwhelming and far from everyday conversations. Post-2020, personal finance became a topic of interest, supported........

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