Lalit Keshre
Co-Founder & CEO
The millennial population in India is rapidly evolving towards the online based investment & wealth management ecosystem, propelling service providers to tune into providing them with actionable information and more convenient wealth management services through mobile platforms. Recognizing this pulse, Groww is acting as the modern-day investor’s personal wealth management assistant by offering them information, ease of use and transparency. It manifests an exemplary approach towards investments through its web, Android, and IOS platforms.
The Bangalore-based company was incepted by a team of finance professionals & technologists, comprising Harsh Jain (COO), Lalit Keshre (CEO), Neeraj Singh (CTO) and Ishan Bansal (CFO). The Young Turks share a strong passion for disrupting the wealth management space and revolutionizing investing in India. In an exclusive interaction with CIO Insider, Harsh discusses the latest endeavors of Groww.
In conversation with Harsh Jain, Co-Founder & COO, Groww
The global online investment market is anticipated to reach $3,570.4 million by 2026. How do you see the evolution of this market in India?
While the numbers look promising, there is still a long way to go as the penetration, especially beyond the metros, is very low. There are close to 200 million people with investable income in India, while only around 30 million actively invest. Hence, the potential for market expansion is
enormous. The only way to bring the next 170 million on board is by making investing simple.
Groww is working towards utilizing this untapped market by doing exactly the same –bringing comprehensive investment opportunities onto your mobile. With the sky-rocketing mobile penetration in India, we expect the industry to grow at 20-25 percent CAGR for the next five years. The contribution from the digital platforms is going to be approximately 85 percent, which today stands at around 60 percent.
Our philosophy is to empower investors with all the necessary tools & resources so that they make smart, intelligent investment decisions by themselves
After interacting with thousands of Groww investors and understanding their investment habits, we realized that millennial investors possess a ‘DIY’ mindset. Although many are a novice, they want the convenience of having all the information & resources at their disposal and prefer selecting funds or stocks by themselves. Consequently, millennial investors look to consume content in different formats to educate themselves and make informed decisions. They are looking for a fast, secure & transparent app that has an aesthetically pleasing, intuitive UI. The Groww app ticks every single checkbox.
Where is Groww currently positioned in this segment?
We are firmly positioned to provide the best to our users – back-lifted by superior tech, including AI & ML based seamless & swift on-boarding & verification systems, API integration, and a lot more. Within just three years, we have been able to scale like no other platform in India. We have eight million-plus users spread across 850+ cities in
the country. We are 100 percent compliant and have all the necessary licenses & clearances to conduct our business. These are the rationale behind our customer satisfaction score of 91 percent, which is one of the highest in the industry.
What are the major factors that differentiate your company from your competitors providing similar solutions?
Our philosophy is to empower investors with all the necessary tools & resources so that they make smart, intelligent investment decisions by themselves. Groww, as a platform, is simple to use, and offers extremely relevant, straight forward & real time in-app communication. We cater to the needs of experienced and novice investors alike. Moreover, we embed novel features like SmartSave, where you can save your money while enjoying more appreciation compared to bank accounts. These, coupled with high transparency both in terms of information provided as well as pricing, make Groww stand out.
Tell us about your current projects. Also, what are your upcoming projects & expansion plans?
The educational initiative we started last year ('Ab India Karega Invest') across different cities post lockdown has turned into live online sessions (open for all). The vision of this initiative is to build a community of investors by empowering them through discussions with industry leaders. At a time when Atmanirbhar is the motto of the country, 'Ab India Karega Invest' (and in this case, even the Groww app) ensures that the investors are not only independent, but also confident enough to make informative decisions on their own to build a wealthier future for themselves.
We envision democratizing investment and being the one-stop solution for all investment needs of India. We recently introduced stock investing on Groww, which had a phenomenal response. Driven by the needs of our users, we are working on adding more features to Groww stocks to widen the selection and options for our investors. Soon, our investors will be able to invest in international stocks, ETFs, IPOs and Bonds as well.