One of the tell-tale signs that an Indian company has raised a significant amount of money is if you see their ad while watching IPL cricket. During the popular Indian Premier League cricket tournament last year, one such company was wealthtech and discount stockbroker Groww. I vaguely remember an ad featuring a coffee-making humanoid robot. Don't be surprised if you see more Groww ads during the 2022 IPL, starting later this month. The six-year-old company is flush with funds, having raised more than $390 million so far. Its latest fundraise of $251 million in October took its valuation to a whopping $3 billion. That was in the territory of fintech biggies like Cred, Razorpay, and Digit. Don't also be astonished if Groww's new ads are about its recently launched lending business, Groww Credit Line, which offers unsecured loans to its clients. Besides, Groww has been offering an invest-now-pay-later product, otherwise known as 'margin trading'. It basically allows clients to invest more than they can afford to, by purchasing stocks at a marginal price of their actual value. Groww lends the rest and earns interest on it. It's a way to increase young investors' exposure to the stock market, which is in line with Groww's premise of YehMarketSabkaHai. It's everyone's market. Sounds like a win-win, but people from the industry tell Anand that invest-now-pay-later is a "horrible product" because of the stock market’s volatility. "Margin funding has traditionally been a product for high-net-worth investors. Selling this to retail investors is problematic," says a senior broking industry executive. However, The MMS found out THAT Groww has no choice but to pitch products like lending and margin trading to its customers.
