Upstox offers free demat account for 7 days to increase investor participation in the stock market

March 2019:Upstox (also known as RKSV Securities)—the new-age online discount-broking firm, backed by Mr. Ratan Tata, Kalaari Capital, and GVK Davix is launching a Free Demat Fest from March 1st to March 7th, 2019. This fest will give first-time Indian investors an opportunity to create a Demat account and start investing in the share market, without paying any account opening charges. During the fest, users can visit Upstox.com and open a Free Demat Account within a few minutes by submitting their KYC documents, online. The process is completely paperless!

Upstox—a product first company—has been working towards making stock trading easy and affordable for all Indians. It has been the first in its category to make an otherwise tedious account opening process paperless and quick. This extended its reach to tech-savvy youngsters and tier 2 & 3 cities, where facilities were limited. Now with the ‘Free Demat Fest’ Upstox is removing the  account opening fees: the last barricade that prevented aspiring share-market investors from entering the share market.

Talking about the objective behind organising the Free Demat Fest’ Ravi Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO, Upstoxsays, “Even though the share market makes headlines everyday, less than 2% of the Indian population participates in trading. In other countries, the participation can be anywhere between 20–50%. Our larger objective is financial inclusion. So, we keep coming up with innovative solutions to make it possible. With paperless account opening facility, we tapped into India’s growing Internet penetration and empowered Indians to open a Demat account without stepping out of their homes. Now, with the Free Demat Fest, we are stepping up our endeavours to increase investor participation and helping potential investors make the best of this little-explored investment opportunity. We will continue to come up with innovative solutions like this.”

Upstox offers free demat account for 7 days to increase investor participation in the stock market

Giving insights about consumer behaviourShrini Viswanath, co-founder and CTO, Upstox, says that, “Costs and complexities involved in stock market participation have been some of the biggest deterrents for small investors. Statistics show that almost 30% of prospective clients do not end up investing in the stock market because they have to pay an upfront fee to open a demat account. Therefore, we are offering a Free Demat Account, so that users can take their first step into the stock market without any hesitation.”

Upstox’s ‘zero brokerage’ model, has been increasingly gaining popularity with retail investors as it facilitated mobile and online route of stock investing at almost zero cost. Even for seasoned intraday traders, Upstox charges a flat rate of Rs. 20 per trade, irrespective of the size of the order.

Upstox is one of the fastest growing discount broker in India. It has witnessed a five-fold increase in its total client-base.  Its pan-India client base increased from 25,000 to 1,60,000 between 2016 to present. Upstox’s notional  contribution to exchanges is around Rs. 20,000 crores.