This Start-up is Making Investing Easier For the Younger Generation Bengaluru-based Groww is an app-based investment platform which provides insights to make investments easier

Investing the surplus is always a good idea. Not only it helps people keep their expenses in check, but also ensures a way to earn returns. However, digitization has changed the fundamentals of investment over the years. Traditionally people used to be inclined towards investing in real estate and gold, but now the trends are gradually shifting towards financial assets such as mutual funds, among others.

While there is a clear intent among people to invest in financial assets, the problem is that the process may appear too complicated for many. After recognizing this gap, former Flipkart employees—Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal, Lalit Keshre and Neeraj Singh—launched Groww to make investing a little simpler for people.

Early Journey

Founded in 2017, Bengaluru-based Groww is an app-based investment platform. The company provides insights about mutual funds and everything from the personal finance world to make investing easier for new investors. The company also aims to help millennials by informing them about the trends in a simpler manner.

Speaking with Entrepreneur India, Lalit Keshre, co-founder and CEO of Groww said that during their stint at Flipkart, the founders recognised that people are interested in investing and have disposable money but lack knowledge about how to go about investing.

"The problem was that while there was intent to invest in stocks or mutual funds, the process appeared complicated," Keshre said.

Backed by prominent investors including Sequoia India, Y Combinator, Propel Venture and Kauffman Fellows, Groww has around 4 million registered users on its platform. According to Keshre, 60 per cent of its user base is predominantly spread across tier II and III cities, and that the number is only growing.

Keshre claims that Groww's obsession with fulfilling what the customer wants makes it unique. "The biggest focus in our company is to build what customers want when it comes to investing and create a solid experience for the users."

Growth

Last year in September, the start-up raised $21.4 million Series B funding round from US-based VC firm Ribbit Capital. Existing investors Sequoia India and Y Combinator also participated in the round. The funds are being deployed to onboard talent across engineering, product, and growth teams. A significant portion of the capital is also being used to fortify tech capabilities and build super scalable infrastructure for investing.

Earlier while speaking with Entrepreneur India, Keshre had said that the company worked on revamping the design of the app to further enhance the user experience. Due to this, Groww has bagged the title of "highest-rated' investment app in India.

In mid-2019, the company also enabled payments through UPI for the ease of its customers. Currently, almost 70 per cent of the payments on Groww happen through the UPI route. The company has expanded its team size to 200.

Plans For 2020

In the coming years, Keshre wants to add more products on the platform. "Currently, we have all the mutual funds on our platform, so the next in line would be stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs)," Keshre added.

The start-up is also aiming to move from being a direct mutual fund platform to a full-scale investing platform. It aspires to be one of the most trusted brands for investing in India in the next five years.