In the rapidly changing financial landscape of India, where traditional investing methods dominated for years, Groww has emerged as a trailblazer. A paradigm shift in investment by millennials/moaner to Gen Z has occurred. The tenure of the company from its inception to a unicorn has been a positive story, and consequence thereof, a change in the investment mindset in India. With its easy-to-use interface and investor education, Groww has helped millions of individuals to act as professionals with their money.
The Founding Story: A Vision to Simplify Investing
Lalit Keshre, an investor in mutual funds for many years, observed that it was a nightmare to invest and take care of investments through the conventional brokers or financial advisors. He felt that investment should be disseminated to a greater extent, especially to young, inexperienced individuals who wanted to be able to manage their money but were not sufficiently knowledgeable about and/or prepared for the complexity of equities, mutual funds, and other investment products.
The idea for Groww came from their desire to democratize investing and make it accessible to everyone. In an attempt to make investment processes easier, Groww took the effort to give a sense to every single investor on where and how to invest in just a few clicks. They envisioned a platform that would allow users to invest directly in mutual funds, stocks, and other financial products, without the need for intermediaries.
Building the Prototype: Overcoming Early Challenges
At the start, Groww provided a service to invest in mutual funds. In that year, the company also offered a website and a mobile application for making direct mutual fund investments without brokers and without cost (commissions). In this case, it was a major advancement in an industry, in which investors were accustomed to working with agents and paying high fees in the form of commissions.
But building the platform wasn’t easy. The team had to guarantee that the platform was easy to use and secure for the users, particularly given that a large percentage of the users held no experience of any kind of investments. They worked tirelessly to design a seamless user experience. However, the most challenging was to develop an environment in which users would trust their investment decisions, and that was also a reason why there was reluctance to trade on the internet.
The same challenges did not come easy and solving them demanded time, however, the original founders stayed focused on their mission. They continually upgraded the platform and eventually established a loyal user base. Groww was officially represented as a constituency player in the Indian investment ecosystem up to 2017, user numbers actively growing.
A Leap to Unicorn Status
In 5 years time, Groww became the top online investment platform in India, and in 2021 it achieved the status of a unicorn with valuation in excess of $1 billion. How did it achieve such phenomenal expansion in such a short time?
Focus on User Experience
The success of Groww is based on its focus on the user experience (UX). In India, many investors found traditional methods of investing cumbersome and inaccessible. Groww solved a problem by simplifying the investment process. The platform was designed to be intuitive, making it easy for anyone, regardless of their background, to begin investing.
The Groww app offers features like instant mutual fund investments, a comprehensive stock trading platform, portfolio tracking, and even research tools for novice investors. This ease of use, paired with a mobile-first strategy, found a receptive audience in the younger generation, who were increasingly comfortable with simple and convenient methods of managing their money.
Trust and Transparency
Another crucial factor behind Groww's success was its emphasis on transparency and trust. Although at that stage most people remained doubtful about investing on the internet, Groww decided to provide no-fee-end investment, educational content and transparent information on financial products.
Moreover, the platform was built with the primary goal of ensuring that the users always felt in control of their investments, with detailed insights and tracking options for users to monitor their performance.
Expanding Product Offerings
In 2020, Groww also up its services with the addition of stock trading to the product. The app facilitated the selling of Indian shares, thereby confirming the app’s presence in the market. This transition from a mutual fund platform to an all-encompassing investment app allowed Groww to attract more users, especially the ones interested in trading stocks and ETFs.
Through a series of rounds of investment and strategic alliance relationship, Groww solidified its brand presence in the market, thereby making Groww a proverbial one-stop-shop for information regarding investments (Cite article for more information).
Hidden Stories and Unpopular Facts About Groww
Although Groww’s success has been the subject of much praise, some less prominent aspects, i.e., some lesser-known factors, have borne significant roles in Groww’s amazing talent.
Initial Struggles with Trust: The problem at first was to make the person think they can use a web site to control their money. Although it's a VC-backed and experienced founder-led startup, encouraging the app's users to make money deposits was a challenge. The founders insisted, for building credibility, to do with everything regulatory approvals, and to have partnerships with the leading financial institutions.
Constant Learning and Adapting: Neither the investors in Groww nor its founders were satisfied with a simple response to the market demand. They repeatedly concentrated on making their product better by sounding out the opinions of their customers. For example, after the release of their trading on stocks feature, they soon understood the necessity of providing professionals with high-end features, which they then rolled out (i.e., advanced charts and real-time analysis of the stock market).
Investor Education: Investing education is a special tactic of Groww to its users. The company has invested significant time and money in developing educational material, whether in the form of blogs, webinars, or videos, to equip novice investors with the information they need to make smart decisions.
Impact on Indian Society: Changing the Mindset
Before the rise of platforms like Groww, investing was often seen as a domain for the affluent or those with financial knowledge. The investment system was perceived to be risky and complicated and not available to everyone (e.g., only professionals or members of the privileged minority). Groww has played an important part in opening up investments in India to all populations, particularly the millennials and Gen Z.
By simple ease of investment and the elimination of agents, the success of Groww has initiated a massive cultural shift. Alarmingly, a growing number of youth perceive investment as an important means of accumulating wealth and, as a result, significant first-time investors have been surging.
Moreover, Groww has made a significant contribution to the developing financial literacy community. It has spurred individuals to take more interest in their money and long-term investments.
Conclusion: The Future of Investing with Groww
Groww has shown that, given the right attitude, user-focused approach and the strategy to build a relationship with users, no matter how involved the technical domain may be, can be broken down into easily understandable pieces for the masses. Not only has the company’s journey to unicorn status been an entrepreneurial achievement, it has also been a cultural one for the investment scene in India.
Looking ahead, Groww is well-positioned to continue to be at the vanguard of the fintech landscape in india. Continuing to increase the scale of operations and breadth of investment offerings and innovation, the company will continue to offer the tools for the next generation of investors to make investment accessible, easy and understandable.
Groww has successfully shown that the future of investing lies in technology, simplicity, and trust all of which the company has embodied in its journey to becoming India’s leading investment platform.