Groww’s Next Act: How The Investment Tech Poster Child Plans To Build Beyond Its IPO

An INR 6,632 Cr issue, overbought 17.6 times at close, sending the valuation of the company to a staggering INR 61,700 Cr (nearly $7 Bn) – the Groww IPO has been the largest fintech public float this year, beyond doubt.  

“The IPO response exceeded all our expectations. It validates years of belief – not just from investors, but from customers who’ve trusted us through multiple market cycles.” Harsh Jain, the co-founder and COO of Groww, told Inc42. 

What next? The question stares at Groww as the euphoria settles down and it gears up to list its shares on November 12. Groww is likely to list with a P/E multiple of 33-34x – at a little premium over its listed peer like Angel One that’s trading at 19-22x P/E multiple.

The leadership at the millennial-friendly app has clarity in vision. The IPO may be a milestone, but the real challenge starts now – to scale sustainably, diversify beyond broking, and preserve the culture that brought it here. “I would say these events – such as the IPO – are rather good pitstops in our long journey, which has energised our team and, at the same time, made us all anxious,” Jain said.

But, the Groww IPO was more than a mere market event. 

For a startup that began its journey in 2016 as a millennial-friendly app to simplify mutual fund investing, Groww’s listing will be a watershed moment with the tech-first investment company debuting in public markets. 

After hitting profits in FY25, Groww recorded a 12% on-year increase in its bottom line for Q1 FY26 to INR 378.4 Cr from INR 338 Cr. The next phase will be built on new products and offerings that take Groww beyond its strongholds. 

“Mutual funds were our entry point. Once a user trusts you with one financial product, it becomes easier to help them explore others,” Jain said, hinting at the rationale behind Groww’s entry into new verticals and products. 

As per the cofounder, the expansion into stocks, derivatives, and ETFs stems from the user journey. “Our platform evolved naturally. Users who began SIPs with us wanted to buy stocks next. Then came demand for margin trading, commodities, and wealth products.”

Unlike fintechs that diversify aggressively for valuation optics, Groww insists its expansion is demand-led. “We don’t launch a product just because competitors have it,” Jain said. “Every product we build starts from customer needs and readiness of our platform.”

The approach has led to steady growth in margin trading facility (MTF) to INR 1,000 Cr in a market with a reportedly INR 1 Lakh Cr opportunity. “We’re taking a long-term view,” Jain said. “We’d rather grow steadily with the right risk controls than chase volume.”

Focus Shifts For Groww

As Groww looks beyond the bourses, it plans to step up focus on retaining affluent users seeking professional-grade investment tools in portfolio management services (PMS), alternative investment funds (AIFs), REITs, and advisory services. 

Jain believes the Indian capital market story is still in the making. “If you look at the percentage of Indians investing directly in equities or mutual funds, we’re still scratching the surface. The next 20 years are going to see exponential growth in participation. That’s what investors are betting on.”

Groww commands a lead over the peer stock broking platforms in terms of monthly active users (MAU). “I believe when the numbers were out there on the NSE and BSE in terms of who is commanding the lion’s share in active user base, our presence beyond mutual funds into stock broking and other wealthtech verticals was validated, which is why, 80% of our user acquisition right now is organic,” Jain said.

This is a significant metric for Groww which is known to spend heavily on marketing and promotion. Jain reiterated that marketing will continue to remain an important part of the business strategy.

An analysis of Groww’s expenses from FY23 to FY25 shows that while the promotional expenses have grown year on year, the company spent just 12% of its total income on marketing in FY25, as opposed to 21.3% in FY23. 

As of Q1, FY26, Groww reported 18.07 Mn transacting users during the period. According to NSE data, Groww had 11.9 Mn active users in September 2025 holding 26.28% market share.

New customers, who make up 45% in the online investing category, are largely organically sourced. Only 15–20% of new users come through paid channels, while the rest through referrals and word-of-mouth.

The Infra Behind Groww 

What keeps the numbers growing in favour of Groww? Its product and engineering teams, mostly based in Bengaluru, call it “lesser but better”. It is the tech philosophy that prizes simplicity. “We’d rather perfect one feature than launch five half-baked ones,” Jain said. “It’s slower initially, but it compounds.” 

Jain said focus will be stepped up on infrastructure – scaling cloud capacity, improving transaction throughput, and ensuring system reliability at times of market volatility. “We don’t hire new tech teams for every product,” he said. “We reallocate existing teams as priorities evolve. It keeps us lean.” 

Incremental spending, he added, is more about scaling infrastructure than increasing headcount.

This modular, in-house approach helps Groww maintain control and security, which are crucial in a heavily regulated domain. “When you build everything yourself, you understand every line of code. That’s why we can move quickly when markets or rules change and bring new products ”

Groww COO clarifies that as millions of users open the app every month, it becomes imperative to scale the infrastructure on a parallel level which will require capital infusion.

Regulatory Headwinds Batter Brokerages

Regulation has often been the stress test for India’s fintechs. The Groww COO clarified that while the recent guidelines by SEBI around F&O trading might have caught the limelight, the reality is that there have been consistent regulations around wealthtech  for the past few years now. 

“We are an active player in the space and I must tell you that be it around mutual funds, equity trading- regulations have been a part of the industry. This has helped us to innovate, build new products ensuring compliance. For instance, when F&O guidelines came, we were already less impacted than others because we had launched several products before these guidelines were implemented which helps in derisking the business,”he added.

When asked whether the new SEBI regulations, which tighten F&O trading activity severely impacted their millions of active users, Jain clarified that contrary to the narrative being written in wealthtech space, F&O traders do not constitute a bulk of the active users. 

“There are only 50-60 Lakh purely F&O traders right now in the country, even after this base has seen a 30-40% jump over the last few years. So lower F&O activity impacting our volume is a misconception.” 

Scaling the Core Before New Bets

A major theme in Groww’s next chapter is prioritisation. Jain insists the company isn’t chasing every new trend or segment. “Our philosophy is to scale existing products before launching new ones. You can’t build depth if you keep switching focus.”

The next 12–18 months, therefore, are about consolidating gains in MTF, commodities, and wealth products. US stock market investing — something that several peers have rushed towards — is on the roadmap, but not imminent. 

Groww also clarified that unlike many fintech companies which are aggressively pursuing lending business due to its high margin leverage, it will not focus or allocate major funding into lending business. 

 

“In the MTF business also, where we provide loans against securities, it is purely a wealthtech product and a very big market in US and other countries. In India this is regulated by SEBI and still underpenetrated and has a lot of opportunities,” he added.

Post the listing, Groww is moving towards a holistic wealthtech business-catering to users across income and sophistication levels — from a 25-year-old SIP starter to a 45-year-old HNI looking for managed portfolios.

“India’s wealth landscape is evolving,” Jain explains. “People are earning more, investing earlier, and seeking professional guidance. We want Groww to be their long-term partner.”

To that end, Groww is doubling down on advisory and managed products. The PMS, AIFs, REITs, and advisory services pipeline will help increase wallet share and reduce dependency on volatile trading revenues. “Broking will be core,” Jain clarifies. “But  other wealthtech products give us stability and longer revenue cycles.” he adds.

Groww’s IPO is a signal that Indian fintech is coming of age, but it also shows that investment tech itself has a lot of nuance that is yet to be unpacked. For years, critics questioned whether India could produce listed fintech companies that bridge profitability with growth and purpose. 

The market debut challenges that scepticism. Groww’s bet is that the next 100 million investors will prefer a platform that speaks their language — literally and financially.

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