During the phased roll-out itself , more than 1 Lakh investors have opened their Demat accounts on Groww and we have recorded about 2 million transactions so far.

With more and more investors rushing to move towards equity markets to pick up shares at beaten-down prices, new-age investment platforms are banking on the opportunity to provide investors the ease of investing without going through much trouble. Treading on the same path, Groww, an investment platform that has been helping millennials invest in mutual funds so far is now entering the stock investment arena. Lalit Keshre, Co-founder and CEO of Groww in an interview with Kshitij Bhargava of Financial Express Online, discusses how the firm’s investment platform has already managed to record about 2 million transactions. Here are the edited excerpts.

1) You are now entering the stock investment arena, offering users a DIY approach, what kind of response are you expecting considering that there already are a bunch of new-age equity investment platforms available?

There was a growing demand from our users to have a simple platform that allows them to invest in stocks and ETFs with ease. This set us working towards building a stocks platform about 2 years ago. Once we had all the compliance checks in place, we began a phased roll-out by inviting our early investors during February March just to see the response and it has been very positive so far. During the phased roll-out itself, more than 1 Lakh investors have opened their Demat accounts on Groww and we have recorded about 2 million transactions so far. This has been encouraging and we are expecting a very positive reception after the full launch.

2) What are you trying to bring to the table with this initiative and how different will this be from the traditional platform offered by big brokerage firms?

We have created a very simple product. Users on Groww can open an account under a few minutes and start investing within minutes. The entire process is online and paperless. The in-app communication is jargon-free and easy to understand for beginners and experienced investors alike. 

Groww offers details about the company’s financial performance, comparison with peers, and other vital statistics all at one place to help users invest wisely. We also create content via videos, blogs, in-app content etc to educate  investors about various aspects of a company. 

 3) We have seen investors complain about software glitches and minimal back-end support on new-age investing platforms, how do we plan to address those?

One of the reasons behind launching Groww stocks in a phased manner was to ensure that we have the tech and support capabilities in place, and iron out issues if any. Our infrastructure is capable of supporting scale and we also have increased our customer support capabilities to meet the needs of our users. 

4) Have you seen any surge of investors during the lockdown period on your Mutual Fund platforms?

Yes, our user base has increased over the period and our transactions have increased by 2X as well.