The broking industry’s pecking order has changed with Groww, a fin-tech startup from Bengaluru, surpassing Zerodha to become India’s leading brokerage in terms of number of active investors.
According to NSE data, Groww has 6.63 million active investors while Zerodha has 6.48 million at the end of September 2023. In March 2021, Zerodha had 3.4 million customers, whereas Groww had 0.78 million.
The NSE defines an active investor as one who performs at least one trade in a year. While this number by itself is not indicative of the popularity of a broking platform, it definitely shows the rapid pace of growth for the Peak XV-backed startup, which got into stock broking in 2020. Zerodha had been leading the race since 2019.
Zerodha took almost a decade to become a leader in the stock broking world. But Groww caught up in just three years, using its own social media channels, videos and blogs aggressively to attract customers. It’s also big on advertisements on television, especially cricket and online, and reaches out to potential customers via Facebook and Google.
At the end of FY23, the country’s first and largest discount brokerby revenue, Zerodha grew to 6.39 million customers, while Groww had 5.37 million. Groww has witnessed substantial growth, going from approximately 0.78 million users in FY21 to 3.85 million in FY22 and 5.78 million investors in FY23. This growth has also attracted formidable competitors, such as HDFC Bank, which launched the Sky discount broking app.
The venture capital-backed platforms like Groww and Upstox have gained popularity as they don’t charge customers for account opening or annual maintenance. PhonePe, with over 200 million active payment customers, has also entered the investment space with its Share.Market platform.
By the end of September, there were approximately 12.97 crore demat accounts in the country. Interestingly, NSE data reveals that only 3.34 crore Indians actively trade at least once a year on the exchange.
Interestingly, Zerodha’s revenue is more than five times that of Groww. During FY 23, Zerodha reported a 39 percent growth in revenue at Rs 6,875 crore compared with the previous financial year. It also reported an identical growth in profits, which stood at Rs 2,907 crore during the last fiscal.
Meanwhile, Nextbillion Technology Private Limited, which runs Groww, has recorded a revenue of Rs 1,294 crore in FY23, more than three-fold growth from Rs 367 crore it reported in FY22. It reported a net profit of Rs 73 crore.
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