Watch: Sharekhan CEO Jaideep Arora on being agile, humble and adapting in a crisis

Mumbai-based stock brokerage firm Sharekhan has seen growth in customer activity during the last two months even as the Covid-19 pandemic has sent the stock markets on a downward spiral. 

Around 90% of the trading at Sharekhan happens digitally and 50% through mobile phones.

Founded in 2000, Sharekhan was the first online brokerage firm in the country. It was acquired by French financial services giant BNP Paribas in 2016. The company has more than 20 lakh customers and 150 branches across the country.

With 99% of its employees working from home, the company has managed to even launch a discount broking platform during this period. The platform dubbed, Project Leapp, is currently in the beta stage and is expected to open to the public in the third quarter of this year.

The new platform is expected to challenge Bengaluru-based digital discount broking firm Zerodha, which now claims to be a unicorn (private startup with a valuation of a billion dollars or more).

In this interaction with TechCircle, Sharekhan CEO Jaideep Arora talks about how companies should invest and prepare for scaling up digital platforms without running the risk of over-investing in technology or scale. Arora says that technology is an enabler in helping several firms to compete by bringing a different value proposition to customers.

Note to readers: During the interview with TechCircle, Sharekhan CEO Jaideep Arora erroneously said, "Even trading advices can be digitalised and that is what project LEAPP is trying to achieve”. Sharekhan has clarified that Project LEAPP will not be giving/issuing any trading related advice (digitally or otherwise).