Online investment platform Groww raises Series A funding

Groww, an online platform which sells mutual funds, has raised $6.2 million (Rs 44 crore) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India.

The round also saw participation from US-based seed investor and accelerator Y Combinator, Propel Venture Partners and Kauffman Fellows, Groww said in a statement.

With the recent fundraising, the Bengaluru-based company plans to build its technology platform and launch new products that offer high-quality investment options to the young, upwardly mobile generation, the statement said.

“We want to create a platform that has all possible investment solutions within a tech-enabled, easy-to-use interface -- and all this while providing the best-in-class user experience above all else. That is the fundamental premise of our offering,” said Lalit Keshre, co-founder and chief executive officer, Groww.

Incorporated as NextBillion Technology Pvt. Ltd, Groww was founded in April 2016 by former Flipkart employees Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal.

The company says it uses data science to make investing simple, accessible and transparent. It claims that investors can find more than 5,000 mutual funds on its platform and invest without any paperwork.

Last year in July, Groww raised $1.6 million (Rs 11 crore then) in a pre-Series A round led by Insignia Ventures Partners, Lightbridge Partners and Kairos, along with CureFit founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, its existing backers.

Prior to this, the company raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Bansal and Nagori, and Y Combinator.

A number of online investment platforms had received significant investor attention between 2015 and 2016, with companies like Scripbox, Tauro Wealth and Goalwise raising funding. There was a lull thereafter before money started coming in again last year.

Earlier this month, Scripbox raised $21.7 million (around Rs 151.26 crore) in a fresh funding round from new and existing investors.

Last year, digital payments firm Paytm launched its direct mutual funds investment app Paytm Money.

In December, digital payments firm MobiKwik acquired online wealth management platform Clearfunds, marking its entry in a segment where bigger rival Paytm has already set foot.