Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella invests in fintech Groww, to also advise the company

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Mutual fund and stock investment platform Groww now has a marquee angel investor. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has invested in it and will also be advising the company.

Groww's co-founder and CEO Lalit Keshre tweeted the announcement on January 8 saying, "Groww gets one of the world’s best CEOs as an investor and advisor. Thrilled to have @satyanadella join us in our mission to make financial services accessible in India."

This comes after the two rounds of funding raised by Groww in 2021. The company first raised $83 million in April 2021 at a valuation of over $1 billion. In October again, the startup raised $251 million in a Series E funding round, tripling its valuation to $3 billion amidst the unabated funding boom in Indian startups.

The online mutual fund investment and stockbroking landscape has witnessed immense customer interest in India since the beginning of the pandemic.

Job losses, health concerns led Indians to invest and save more in avenues including mutual funds and also try their luck at gaining from the stock market highs and lows.

This coupled with the recent retail investor interest seen in initial public offerings (IPOs) signaling a growing user base for players like Groww has attracted global investors, with Nadella joining the list.

The startup's other investors include Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Y Combinator, Tiger Global, Propel Venture Partners,  ICONIQ Growth, Alkeon, Lone Pine Capital, and Steadfast.

Groww gets one of the world’s best CEOs as an investor and advisor.

Thrilled to have @satyanadella join us in our mission to make financial services accessible in India.

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— Lalit Keshre (@lkeshre) January 8, 2022

Founded in 2016 by four former Flipkart executives – Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal – Groww’s platform helps users invest in stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, IPOs, US stocks, futures and options, and gold and has over 20 million users.

Groww competes with players such as Zerodha, Upstox, Paytm Money and Angel Broking. New players like Dhan and Fisdom too are entering the stockbroking space with an aim to build a user base of one million in the next year.

In an interview with Moneycontrol on October 25, 2021, Keshre had said that the company plans to extend its reach to under-penetrated geographies, strengthen its team, and scale tech infrastructure.

“We will look at adding government bonds and other fixed-income products. We are also launching derivatives. Plus, there is a lot more to build for our mutual funds vertical itself,” he had said.