Two Personal Investing Apps in India merge for $150mm

Groww, a personal trading and investing app in Bengaluru, India, is rumored to be acquiring Fisdom, another personal trading and investing app in Bengaluru, India. Each company is somewhat analogous to Robinhood in the US. They allow users to trade stocks, buy mutual funds, avail themselves of robo-portfolios, and even provide loans. Groww has raised almost $400mm and was last valued at $3b back in 2021. Fisdom has raised around $37mm and had revenue of around $10mm last year, or so we hear. The merger gives Groww the benefit of Fisdom's strong footprint amongst India's banks, a nice compliment to Groww's direct-to-consumer strategy.

We have not seen anything official from either company yet, but the story seems to be making the rounds in the Indian press. Even if it is just a false rumor, it underscores our belief that the easiest way to make $1b in a WealthTech startup is to create a personal investing/advice platform in India. It's not so much about lead generation for professional advice, our US-based Self-Directed Trading theme, as it is about the massive amount of mass affluent that is being created in India and the relative lack of professional investment advisors. It's just math. It takes a while to develop a good wealth manager and yet the number of mass affluent is growing by leaps and bounds. Only technology can close the gap.