Unlocking High-Yield Diversified Investments with Grip's Baskets Diversifying one's portfolio has become one of the utmost priorities of today's investors and betting big, and conforming to a few select routes has not been favorable, especially considering the volatile market.
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Diversifying one's portfolio has become one of the utmost priorities of today's investors and betting big, and conforming to a few select routes has not been favorable, especially considering the volatile market.
Investors often ask themselves; Have they done enough research? What do I go for among so many options and most importantly, how do I diversify my portfolio?
Theme-based investments have the answers for all these confusions. Grip is an online platform for investments in alternative options. The firm offers diversified options in inventory finance, startups, and bonds among many others.
The Market
Grip was founded in 2020 by Nikhil Agarwal with Co-Founders Vivek Gulati and Ashish Jindal and is based in Gurugram. With the need for alternate investments on the rise in India, the space boasts decent competition with various names such as Wint Wealth, Giraffe, GoldenPi, IndiaBonds, TheFixedIncome, Dexif, and InCred Money to name a few.
Market shares in percentages among six players in the alternative investing space. Source: Tracxn
The alternate-investing platform sector has 16 active players and has raised over US$81.5 Million in equity funding. Grip itself has raised US$15.4 Million out of which US$14 Million came in equity funding from 62 institutional and angel investors in total, according to Tracxn.
Anicut Capital, Gemba Capital, Stride Ventures, Multiply Ventures, Nueva Capital, and Angel investors like Anupam Mittal, Sunjay Kapoor, and Rajeev Kapoor are among the several investors in Grip across several rounds.
In a recent episode of Shantanu Deshpande's show, Anupam Mittal shared his perspectives about the secured lending space as an angel investor, "In the Indian fintech, a good bet for an investor is to back the players in the secured lending space."
@AnupamMittal, our investor at Grip Invest, shares his insights on being bullish about the secured lending space and his early bets as an angel investor, including ours.
— Grip Invest (@gripinvest) March 8, 2024
A big shout-out to @shantanukd for bringing this alive on screen.#SecuredLending #Investments #GripInvest pic.twitter.com/wP7WV4y6DU
A Basket that Diversifies
Grip recently announced its product called 'Basket' which helps investors experience high-yield investing. The product is centered around the idea of making investment decisions easier, with theme-based investments spread over different instruments to achieve a diversified portfolio.
"Achieving high returns without undue stress should be every fixed-income investor's experience, be it a novice or a veteran," said Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, of Grip Invest, while commenting on the launch.
According to Grip, the platform gathered information from investors and key findings from research to realize diversification and scarcity of time to make the right call during investing are the main challenges faced by investors in the market.
Basket operates a theme-based model where users can experience sector and category-based investing. The platform also enables diversification, with each Basket holding multiple bonds or SDIs to automatically de-risk a user's portfolio, according to the company blog,
"Enabling investors to pick a theme-based pre-designed portfolio, with the assurance of diversification, and the convenience of payment is what makes this industry-first feature a standout," said Nikhil Aggarwal.
According to Grip, 'Baskets', unlike mutual funds, Baskets don't carry management fees or any other charges. As for taxation, it remains the same as for Bonds or SDIs with no additional TDS, and each 'instrument' in a Basket is regulated and vetted by a SEBI registered Research Analyst.
Options for everybody
In a recent launch webinar, Nikhil Agarwal explained the five types of Baskets as part of the inaugural version.
A High Rated Basket that delivers fixed monthly payouts over a max tenure of 18 months. The Basket aims to offer a steady flow of income with low-risk factors through what the company describes as a balanced and diversified bundle with bonds of 5 high-quality Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs). Each bond is rated between AA- to A and features bonds from Ugro Capital, Navi Finserv, Incred Financial Services, Vivriti Capital, and Credit Access Grameen.
A High Return Basket however deliveres fixed monthly payouts over a max tenure of 23 months with an overall yield of 13.3% as combined interest from the bonds and features NBFC bonds namely Akara Capital, Manba Finance, and Keertana Finserv.
A screenshot of the Basket platform. Image Source: Grip.
The other three Baskets are comprised of a 'Gold Shield' that has a 70% exposure to gold-loan-based bonds, a Digi Loan with NBFCs that recorded some of the lowest Nonperforming Assets (NPA) ratios in the industry, and an Ultra Short Tenure Basket that consists of three NBFSs such as Akara Capital Advisors, Clix Capital Services and Indel Money
Nikhil Aggarwal said, "With Basket, Grip Invest aims to progress its founding value of democratizing high-yield investing, by offering a convenient and transparent path to building a robust high-yield investment portfolio, for all."
