Venture Capitalist Turned Financial Education Evangelist How StockGro combines three elements to make millennials investment ready!

Online stock trading app, StockGro, has seen rapid growth since the two years it has been in existence. The StockGro app was conceptualised in January 2020. By the end of March 2021, it had 1 million user-base. Now, that number stands at 15 million user-base. "StockGro combines three elements- Gaming + Social + Trading, on one platform. Our aim is to make next-generation investments ready and help them initiate their investment journey without losing their capital. The platform provides all the relevant data that a newbie trader needs to start trading or investing. 15 million+ users get real trading experience and a platform to refine their portfolio building skills for free without the need of opening demat accounts," Ajay Lakhotia, Founder, StockGro, tells Entrepreneur India.

While investment in capital markets is the largest social commerce activity, there is no technology platform taking this user journey from offline to online. With over 1.3 billion population, less than 4% of Indians invest in stocks and Mutual Funds and cannot grow their capital. The major reasons behind this is the lack of basic understanding of finance and stocks, and the fear of losing money, Lakhotia suggests.

He also identified that the lack of financial literacy is an issue primarily with people between the age group of 20-35 in both Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, which are StockGro's primary market. This segment of the population includes first-time investment enthusiasts, students, and millennials in their first/ second job, exploring investment venues, yet not having first-hand experience or in-depth knowledge of the market. Based upon this observation, StockGro's business vision was founded.

"StockGro is targeting 50% of the millennial population (220M) to learn stock trading and investment in a simulated environment on StockGro, where they can learn to invest with virtual cash at zero risk," he adds.

Further, StockGro also inculcates financial market knowledge through its in-app learning section where viewers can get information and analysis on individual stocks, sectors, trending macroeconomic events, the impact of policies on financial markets, and technical & fundamental indicators.

StockGro simplifies the journey of trading and investing by enabling users to experience real-time trading without the risk of losing real money through gamification. The app runs live virtual trading, live leaderboard, and live chat with over 8.5 million users participating on the app.

Lakhotia explains users take part in StockGro leagues by building multiple portfolios, competing against their peers to prove their proficiency, learn practically and win rewards for outperforming their peers, encouraging them to build better portfolios week on week.

While the app already encompasses a lot of features on a single platform, it is still evolving and adding new features - "We are planning to add more asset classes like Gold, Bond, Forex etc., and partnering with the whole Fintech ecosystem to enable our users to start their investment journey," Lakhotia said.