Investment startup Groww raises $30 million from YC Continuity, others

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Bengaluru-based investment platform Groww has raised $30 million in its series C round, led by YC Continuity. This round also saw the participation of existing investors Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital and Propel Ventures.

YC Continuity is a fund which invests in Y Combinator-backed startups to help them scale up in their subsequent rounds. This is its first investment in India.

YCombinator is an American seed investor. YC Continuity is a separate entity within YC which invests in growth phase startups.

How the funds will be used

In a statement to the press, the company said that it will use the funds to strengthen its technology infrastructure and hire top talent across engineering, product and growth. Groww also wants to pump in part of the funds to power an educational initiative across India to increase pan-India literacy about financial markets.

“We started our journey writing blogs and making videos to educate people about investing. Our wealth as a nation will keep growing and our mission is to provide the best experience to investors to manage their wealth,” said Lalit Keshre, chief executive officer, Groww.

YCombinator will help Groww accelerate towards their stated business goals, just as the way it helped shape the early part of Groww’s journey, he said.

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Groww has received these additional funds at a time when the broking business is becoming exciting in India. Market observers say that India is seeing the ‘Robinhood’ moment, when new-age tech enabled brokers can actually disrupt traditional businesses.

Robinhood is an American stock broking startup which successfully disrupted the traditional brokers there.

The Groww journey

Groww was recently in the news for expanding beyond mutual funds to stock broking, thereby taking the fight to other broking startups like Zerodha, 5Paisa and Upstox.

Incepted in 2017, Groww has around 80 lakh registered users on the platform. It offers direct mutual funds and stock broking, recording around 1.5 lakh new SIPs every month. Within three months of its launch, the broking business has grown fast with more than a lakh new demat accounts getting opened every month through the platform.

Players like Groww, which are well-funded, wants to be in the right position to capture the largest share of these new market opportunities.

“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,” said Anu Hariharan, partner at YC Continuity.

Groww’s challenge to Zerodha

Zerodha, a bootstrapped startup from Bengaluru, stands as the largest broking company in India today, within 10 years of its birth.

A bootstrapped startup is typically built without any venture funding.

Zerodha now faces challenge from upstarts like Upstox, Groww and Paytm Money, the wealth management arm of digital payments major Paytm.

Further, India, an under-penetrated investment market, has seen a record addition of new trading accounts during the Coronavirus-induced lockdowns. This has shown that many Indians with surplus wealth are taking a shot at stock markets and relying on digital platforms for business.