Upstox raises funds from cricketer Shikhar Dhawan, footballer Larry Fitzgerald

Upstox founders Shrini Viswanath, Ravi Kumar and Kavitha Subramanian.

Online trading platform Upstox has raised funds from cricketer Shikhar Dhawan, American footballer Larry Fitzgerald and Kal Somani, founder and CEO of US-based IntraEdge Inc, sources said.

The amount of investment was not known. The platform previously secured $108 million in its Series C round, which was headed by Tiger Global and also included BlackSoil, Stride Ventures and InnoVen Capital, in November 2021. Upstox's valuation had increased to $3-3.5 billion as a result of the round, making it a unicorn.

Upstox did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries on the latest round of investment development.

The Mumabi-based startup was founded in 2009 as RKSV Securities by Shrini Viswanath, Raghu Kumar, Kavitha Subramanian, and Ravi Kumar. The company entered retail broking in 2011 and rebranded to Upstox in 2016.

The company competes with Zerodha, Groww, Paytm Money, and Angel One, among others.

In May 2022, Upstox said it surpassed 10 million users, outpacing Zerodha at the time. However, Upstox had 5 million active users at the time compared to 6.2 million for Zerodha.

Nithin Kamath, the CEO and co-founder of Zerodha, tweeted in August 2022 that the company has surpassed 10 million users.

In an interview with Moneycontrol in May, Vishwanath said the company had grown at a pace of 3x year on year for the past three years and expected the growth rate to continue.

By the end of FY23, Upstox anticipates that its user base would be between 25 and 30 million. The company plans to add 200–300 million new subscribers over the next four to five years.

The company aims to be a wealth management platform and will consider expanding its product offering to allow customers to manage all of their investments.

“Our larger ambition is to be more than just a broker investor platform. We want to be a strong wealth management platform. We want to be in a position that whether it's a savings account, credit card, fixed deposit, or a loan, we want them to come to Upstox,” Vishwanath had said.