Groww brings on board Microsoft chief Satya Nadella as an investor, advisor

“Groww gets one of the best CEOs in the world as an investor and advisor. Glad to see @satyanadella joining us in our mission to make financial services accessible in India,” Keshre tweeted.

In April last year, Groww
raised $83 million in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global, making its way into the coveted unicorn club. Within the next six months, the investment platform
raised another $251 million in a new round of funding, tripling its valuation to $3 billion, or about Rs 22,500 crore.

It was joined by the likes of leading fintech unicorns such as merchant payments and financial service providers Razorpay and Pine Labs which grew their valuation to $7.5 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, through successive fundraises, last year.

Founded in 2016 by former Flipkart executives Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal, Groww enables retail investors to access financial products and services through the web and mobile.

Users can invest in direct mutual funds, stocks, ETFs (exchange-traded funds), and IPOs. The company also recently launched investments in initial public offerings (IPOs), sovereign bonds as well as futures and options on its platform. It has been working for a few years to introduce investments for US-based stocks for its users.

As of October last year, Groww had over 20 million users on its platform, with 70% of its user base residing in Tier 2 and 3 geographies. The company was looking to bolster its existing offerings, said Keshre during the last fundraise.

Earlier in May 2021, Groww also revealed its plans of creating its own investment products through the acquisition of Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.’s (IBHFL’s) mutual fund subsidiaries — Indiabulls Asset Management Company Ltd. and Indiabulls Trustee Company Ltd., for Rs 175 crore.

The investment platform was looking to gain from the expense ratio charged by asset management companies on mutual fund products, with a focus on opening newer revenue streams for itself. In September 2021, IBHFL received the Competition Commission of India’s nod for the deal.