Investment App Groww Lands $21.4M To Expand India Market Share

Indian startup Groww has raised $21.4 million in a Series B financing round led by U.S.-based VC firm Ribbit Capital.

Existing investors Sequoia India and Y Combinator also participated in the round. Groww has raised about $29 million to date.

Groww allows users to invest in mutual funds, and has secured around 2.5 million registered users, two-thirds of whom are first-time investors, Lalit Keshre, co-founder and CEO of Groww, told TechCrunch in an interview.

The company wants to use its new funding to boost growth, as well as double Groww’s employee headcount to 200 in the coming months.

In addition to planning to offer a paid service, Groww will also be offering users the ability to purchase stocks from its app, said Keshre.

Ashish Agarwal, a principal partner at Sequoia Capital India, said, “Investment products such as mutual funds and stocks were traditionally sold offline through financial advisers, who were mis-incentivized to sell high-commission products. Groww is taking a refreshing approach with a zero-commission mobile first model, enabling investors to make their own investment choices through a slick and easy user interface.”

“We backed the Groww team because we believe in their mission. They have built the most trusted product in this space and are on the path to create a category-defining product,” added Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital.

Ribbit has been made several investments in India. In June it led a Series C round of funding with Sequoia India for Bengaluru-based online payments firm Razorpay. With the funding, Razorpay is said to be valued at roughly $450 million. The company is said to use the funds to grow new offerings such as its Razorpay Capital lending arm and Razorpay X neo-banking platform. At the same time, the company also aims to grow its team to 700 while seeking some buyouts during the six months to come.