Investment startup Groww, which focuses especially on young millennials, has just announced that it has raised $251 Mn as part of Series E funding round. Iconiq Growth led the round while slew of new investors as well as existing investors also participated in the funding round. The existing investors that took part in the funding round included Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and YC continuity.
The Bengaluru-based startup commanded a valuation of $3 bn in the latest round. The startup’s valuation saw almost a threefold increase from its previous round in April this year. Tiger Global had spearheaded the funding round, which helped Groww in securing the unicorn status.
It must be noted that Tiger Global is also an investor in Groww’s direct competitors like Upstox and INDMoney.
Groww had said that it will use the latest capital infusion for ramping up its technology infrastructure and expand in markets where it has very minimal presence. The company said that it will also use funds for creating wide-spread awareness about its products among the people. The company is already running an extensive ad campaign to create mass awareness about its products.
Groww essentially help millennial investors to make online investment in plethora of investment products including mutual funds (including Futures and Options), digital gold and fixed deposits. Recently, it launched a new service wherein it help users to invest in select high-profile US stocks like Facebook, Tesla, Apple and many others.
The likes of Groww, Upstox and Zerodha are trying to capitalize on millennials growing interest in non-traditional investment avenues like stocks, mutual funds, digital golds so and so forth. Buoyed by the grand exposure that is largely fueled by internet and smartphone penetration, the millennials seem to be upping their ante as far as stock market and other non-traditional investment products are concerned.
However, Indian masses participation in stock market investment continues to remain pathetically low. It is roughly estimated that approximately only 3-4% of India’s population participate in the stock market.