Wealthtech Unicorn Groww Acquires Minority Stake In Fintech Startup Digio

Fintech unicorn Groww has reportedly made a strategic investment in fintech SaaS startup Digio, acquiring a minority stake in it. 

“In 2016, Zerodha’s investment arm Rainmatter invested in Digio as a seed fund. The company is well capitalised with its own profits, and with Groww investing in Digio, the company would have two largest broking platforms in the country as its backers,” a VCCircle report quoted Digio cofounder Abhinav Parashar as saying.

Founded in 2016 by Parashar and Sanket Nayak, Digio provides digital infrastructure to businesses for identity verification, electronic signing, and collecting recurring payments. The platform is used by banks, non-bank lenders, brokerage firms, fintech players, and asset management firms. 

Last year, Digio also received the Reserve Bank of India’s in-principle approval to work as an account aggregator (AA) and payments aggregator. 

Digio, which bagged a funding of $375K from Zerodha’s Rainmatter in 2016, has been profitable for the last five fiscal years, Parashar was quoted as saying in the report. Digio reported a net profit of INR 24 Cr and a revenue of nearly INR 83 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22). 

On the other hand, Groww was started in 2016 by former Flipkart executives Neeraj Singh, Harsh Jain, Lalit Keshre and Ishan Bansal. The wealthtech startup allows its customers to invest in stocks, direct mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and IPOs. It also provides tools to analyse performance of stocks and investment portfolios. 

In July last year, Groww also invested in Bengaluru-based fintech SaaS startup Hyperface.

The fintech unicorn raised $251 Mn in its Series D funding round, led by ICONIQ Growth, in October 2021 at a post-money valuation of $3 Bn. The funding round also saw participation from Alkeon, Lone Pine Capital, Steadfast, and existing investors Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, YC Continuity, Tiger Global, and Propel Venture Partners.

During the same year, it also acquired Indiabulls’ mutual fund business to expand its investment products.  

Groww competes with the likes Zerodha, Upstox and 5Paisa in the country’s wealthtech segment.

As per an Inc42 report, the country’s fintech sector is anticipated to become a $1.3 Tn space by 2025. Wealthtech, a subsector of the fintech segment, is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 44% to breach the $28 Bn mark by 2025.

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