On-line brokerage platform Zerodha’s Chief Govt Officer Nithin Kamath, in a publish on his Buying and selling Q&A platform on Wednesday, stated that he wouldn’t have began Zerodha if it was to be achieved in 2025 as markets are crowded with brokerages at current.
Responding to a social media consumer, Kamath stated, “We might not have began Zerodha. The market is so crowded, and being one other one doing the identical factor wouldn’t work.”
Kamath additionally highlighted that his product has developed over the past 10 years, and it could not make sense to aim to beat the “finest” in immediately’s market on the primary day of enterprise.
“Additionally our product has developed over the past 10 years. I don’t suppose it could make sense to aim to beat the perfect immediately on day 1 of the enterprise,” he stated within the publish.
What would Nithin Kamath construct in 2025?
Responding to a Zerodha neighborhood consumer named Manav Agarwal, Nithin Kamath stated that in 2025, he could be extra prone to construct a brokerage with different aggressive benefits and cost extra by providing higher analysis to the shoppers.
Nonetheless, Kamath additionally highlighted that this initiative would attract fewer prospects, however there’s a probability that individuals might earn “considerably” from the enterprise enterprise.
“After all the shoppers would have been a lot lesser, however you might nonetheless earn considerably,” stated Kamath in his publish.
Rise of low-cost brokers in India
Paying brokerage charges has been a long-term bane for inventory market buyers. This led to a discount in portfolio returns, as folks wanted to pay excessive charges to their respective commerce homes.
Through the early 2000s, hefty brokerage charges typically diminished buyers’ motivation to put money into the inventory markets, just like how excessive taxes on positive aspects can result in lesser funding within the public markets.
Nonetheless, within the trendy period, technological advances have helped evolve the brokerage panorama, and low cost brokers and zero-cost brokerage platforms have emerged to serve shoppers seeking to put money into capital markets.
The introduction of in style on-line brokerages like Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angle One, amongst others, has disrupted the normal brokerage trade as these firms supply their digital investor companies in a cheap means.
These digital platforms not solely enable buyers to entry real-time inventory market knowledge but in addition enable them to handle their portfolios and execute their very own trades.
In response to AMFI knowledge for March 2025, the full web asset below administration (AUM) in mutual funds was ₹65.74 lakh crore. The information additionally confirmed that there are 1,760 schemes lively within the Indian inventory market.
NSDL knowledge exhibits that greater than 3.94 crore demat accounts have been lively in India as of March 2025.
In a publish on March 21, 2025, 45-year-old Kamath stated that Zerodha shoppers have saved wherever between ₹2,000 and ₹20,000 crore as fairness supply brokerage over the past 10 years.
Way forward for India’s brokerage trade
In response to Mordor Intelligence knowledge, India’s safety brokerage market is predicted to turn into a $6.21 billion trade by 2030, with a compounded annual progress price (CAGR) of seven.89 per cent between 2025 and 2030.
An ICRA report from June 2024 confirmed that low cost brokers have to revise their brokerage fees by 10 per cent to twenty per cent to offset the lack of reductions from the exchanges.
“They might want to steadiness the necessity for larger charges with the aggressive stress, probably resulting in adjustments of their enterprise fashions by way of reassessing brokerage-free choices,” stated ICRA in its report addressing the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) hike within the July Finances of 2024.
Chittorgarh knowledge exhibits that Groww has the very best variety of lively shoppers, with greater than 1.30 crore customers in 2025, with Zerodha following swimsuit with over 79.57 lakh customers.
Different prime brokers within the Indian market are Angel One, Upstox, ICICI Direct, and Kotak Securities which have greater than 14 lakh customers as of 2025, in accordance with knowledge.
Disclaimer: This story is for academic functions solely. The views and suggestions made above are these of particular person analysts or broking firms, and never of Mint. We advise buyers to examine with licensed specialists earlier than making any funding choices.
