Groww Receives SEBI Approval For Its First Index Fund

Groww has received approval from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to launch its first index fund, paving the way for the stockbroking platform’s entry into the mutual fund space.

“Groww Mutual Fund got approval for its first NFO – Groww Nifty Total Market Index Fund,” Groww cofounder Lalit Keshre posted on X (erstwhile Twitter).

Earlier this year, Groww acquired the mutual fund business of Indiabulls Housing Finance for a consideration of INR 175.6 Cr. This cleared the path for it to launch mutual fund offerings.

The latest development comes days after Groww’s rival Zerodha submitted draft offer documents with the market regulator for the launch of two funds, the Zerodha Tax Saver (ELSS) Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund and the Zerodha Nifty Large Midcap 250 Index Fund (ZN250).

Zerodha has tied up with smallcase for its foray into the mutual fund space. Last month, the bootstrapped stockbroking unicorn received the final approval from SEBI to start the operations of its asset management company (AMC). 

With this, the stage is set for Zerodha and Groww to expand their competition to the mutual fund sphere as well.

Founded in 2017 by former Flipkart employees Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, Groww offers an online stockbroking platform and direct mutual funds. 

It competes with Zerodha, ETMoney and StockGro, among others. Last month, PhonePe also launched a share trading platform, Share.Market.

Of late, Groww’s has been focusing on diversifying its product portfolio. It started offering instant personal loans on its platform after it received a licence to operate as a non-banking finance company (NBFC). In July, it also launched the UPI payments feature.

Groww slipped into the red in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), posting a loss of INR 239 Cr as against a profit of INR 167.6 Cr in FY21. However, operating revenue jumped 11.8X YoY to INR 350.9 Cr in FY22 from INR 29.5 Cr in the previous year.

The entry of Groww and Zerodha in the mutual fund space comes at a time when Jio Financial Services has formed a joint venture with the world’s biggest asset manager BlackRock to grab a share in India’s $540 Bn mutual fund industry. The joint venture has earmarked an initial investment of $300 Mn to establish itself.

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