Upstox, an online trading platform, raises funds from cricketer Shikhar Dhawan, footballer Larry Fitzgerald

• ByStartupStory     |    September 19, 2022

According to reports, the online trading platform Upstox has raised capital from cricketer Shikhar Dhawan, American footballer Larry Fitzgerald, and Kal Somani, founder and chief executive officer of US-based IntraEdge Inc. The acquired amount was not revealed. In November 2021, the platform raised $108 million in a Series C funding round led by Tiger Global, including BlackSoil, Strive Ventures, and InnoVen Capital. As a result of the round, Upstox’s valuation jumped to $3-$3.5 billion, making it a unicorn.

Shrini Viswanath, Raghu Kumar, Kavitha Subramanian, and Ravi Kumar formed the Mumbai-based firm known as RKSV Securities in 2009. 2011 saw the company’s debut in retail brokerage, and in 2016 it was relaunched as Upstox.

Its competitors are Zerodha, Groww, Paytm Money, and Angel One. Upstox announced in May 2022 that it had achieved 10 million users, surpassing Zerodha at the moment. However, Upstox had 5 million active users at the moment, whereas Zerodha had 6,2 million. In August 2022, Nithin Kamath, CEO and co-founder of Zerodha, tweeted that the company now had more than 10 million users.

In an interview with Moneycontrol in May, Vishwanath stated the company has expanded at a pace of 3x year on year for the past three years and expected the growth rate to continue.

Vishwanath said, “Our larger ambition is to be more than just a broker investor platform. We want to be a strong wealth management platform. We want to be in a position that whether it’s a savings account, credit card, fixed deposit, or a loan, we want them to come to Upstox.” 

Upstox predicts that its customer base will range between 25 and 30 million by the end of FY23. The corporation intends to increase its subscriber base by 200–300 million over the next four to five years. The company aspires to be a platform for wealth management and will consider expanding its product offering to enable consumers to handle all of their investments.

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