India-based trading app nets $12m to reach new users

Stoxkart CEO Pranay Aggarwal / Photo credit: Stoxkart

Stoxkart, an online trading platform based in India, has raised 1 billion rupees (US$11.9 million) from financial services firm SMC Global.

Founded in 2019, Stoxkart aims to simplify trading by offering a zero-brokerage model for delivery trading. This lets investors boost returns without worrying about high commissions, the company said. Its flat fee structure for future and options and intraday trading also makes trading more accessible.

The platform provides various chart analysis tools and features like order slicing, helping it compete with local players such as Zerodha and Groww.

The fresh funding will fuel tech innovation, product development, marketing, and customer acquisition over the next 24 months at Stoxkart, which aims to hit 1 million downloads annually.

Among online trading platforms, Groww has the most number of monthly active users (MAUs), reaching 6.8 million as of October 2023, according to data from Dalal Street Investment Journal, It took the crown from Zerodha in August 2023, which ranks second with 6.5 million MAUs.

However, Tech in Asia previously reported that Zerodha’s active user growth has been slowing since March 2022. In an interview, Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath referred to a blog post saying that “new account openings had dropped off a cliff along with the market drop.”

Currency converted from Indian rupees to US dollars: US$1 = 83.3 rupees.

See also: Is India’s online trading boom facing a reality check?