InCred Money Forays Into Retail Broking With Stocko Acquisition

SUMMARY

Following the acquisition, Delhi-based Stocko will be rebranded as InCred Stocko, subject to regulatory approvals

The acquisition will mark InCred Group’s entry into retail broking, expanding its offerings to include equities and derivatives trading

With this deal, InCred Group aims to build a financial ecosystem that includes lending, asset and wealth management, capital markets and retail investing

InCred Money, the retail wealthtech investment distribution arm of the InCred Group, is set to venture into retail broking with its proposed acquisition of South Asian Stocks Limited (SASL), which operates as Stocko.

Following the acquisition, Delhi-based Stocko will be rebranded as InCred Stocko, subject to regulatory approvals. InCred Money will absorb the Stocko team into its fold.

InCred spokesperson told Inc42, “Stocko will operate as a subsidiary of InCred Money post regulatory approvals.”

However, the financial details of the deal remain undisclosed.

The acquisition will mark InCred Group’s entry into retail broking, expanding its offerings to include equities and derivatives trading.

With this deal, InCred Group aims to build a financial ecosystem that includes lending, asset and wealth management, capital markets and retail investing, backed by advanced technology.

InCred’s founder and group chief executive Bhupinder Singh said, “Stocko gives us a proven platform with serious volume, and we’ll bring our tech, capital, and customer-first mindset to unlock its full potential.”

Founded in 2013 as a broking platform for active traders and retail investors, Stocko offers trading across equities, derivatives, commodities and currencies, with an economical subscription plan starting as low as INR 2.99 per order.

The development comes at a time when there is a growing interest in the retail broking space, where bigger wealthtech platforms have been experimenting in expanding their portfolio.

For instance, Univest entered the discount broking space with the launch of ‘Univest Broking’, earlier in February this year, allowing users to open free demat accounts, execute trades in the app, and automate trade tracking. The move will transform Univest from an AI-led advisory platform to a provider of a full-stack trading ecosystem.

Further, the investment tech space is seeing intense competition with the emergence of newer players like PhonePe, Paytm Money, and Dhan, to compete with existing market giants such as Zerodha, Groww, and Angel One.

On the other hand, in May, IPO-bound investment tech unicorn Groww signed a definitive agreement to acquire wealthtech startup Fisdom in an all-cash deal, with an aim to expand its offerings in the wealth management space.

At the heart of all these is the fast-growing Indian investment tech market, which is expected to reach a size of $14 Bn this year.

Founded in 2016 by ex-Deutsche Bank executive Bhupinder Singh, InCred Group operates in the BFSI sector through three separate entities – lending vertical InCred Finance, wealth and asset management vertical InCred Capital, and retail bonds and alternative investments platform InCred Money.

On the financial front, lending tech unicorn InCred Financial Services reported a 18% rise in its consolidated net profit to INR 374 Cr in FY25 from INR 316.4 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenue zoomed 47% to INR 1,871.9 Cr during the year under review from INR 1,269.9 Cr in FY24.