Harsh Jain – Co-founder and COO, Groww

Groww is an app-based investment platform that has become a game-changer for a new generation of investors. This platform focuses on simplicity and transparency as its key USPS. The app has been designed to be like a buddy who understands millennials, powered by intelligent UI and UX. Today, 60 per cent of Groww’s user base is spread across the country, predominantly in tier 2 and 3 cities, and that percentage is only growing. To further catalyze growth, Groww will be launching investments in stocks. Vivek Singh Chauhan spoke to Harsh Jain, Co-founder, and COO, Groww to know more about the app. Here’s the edited excerpt.

Can you please tell us about the app? Groww is a technology company that offers a seamless and transparent approach to investing via a web platform, Android, and IOS app. Groww app offers you to invest in direct mutual fund plans with no commission or hidden costs. While currently, the option of investing in direct mutual fund plans is available on the app, the platform will soon enable stock investing and introduce more financial products digital gold, ETFS among others

What is the USP that drives the customers to your platform? Groww is on a mission to make investing accessible to millions of users in India by making it free and simple. Dedicated to inspiring the next generation of investors, Groww provides the simplest and the most transparent platform to invest. Our platform is suitable for investors who prefer a DIY or Do-ityourself approach. Our long term vision is to empower investors to invest in any product they want to invest in and provide them with the right

information for the right decisions.

Features of the app:

The app offers a variety of mutual funds that you can choose to invest in according to your needs. The funds range from highrisk high return funds such as sectoral

funds to low-risk funds such as liquid or arbitrage funds.

The interface is extremely easy to use and the in-app communication is very simple and straightforward; catering to experienced and novice investors alike. The top funds are highlighted in the schedule and the list is renewed periodically.

Right from onboarding to making your first investment, the user flow is very smooth and self-explanatory. They have paperless KYC, with same day approval and a very active in-app chat support section for ready redressal of investment-related issues. The platform enables users to make secure payments through UPI as well.

Further enhancing the user experience is an inbuilt dashboard that reflects all the investments that you have made through the platform for easy tracking. It also shows an analysis of your investments like returns, asset allocation between equity and debt, and the ongoing SIPS. You can also see your personal details, bank mandate, purchase and sale details, SIP reports, etc at one place.

In case you have made investments in mutual funds via other platforms, you can easily

track and switch to Groww platform with a single click. The platform facilitates you to switch from regular mutual funds to direct funds within a few minutes. Groww also has a one-click redeem option in case you want to encash your fund units. Moreover, Groww also offers a unique feature called “Smartsave” where you can put your money and enjoy more appreciation as compared to a bank account.

Coming to investment modes, the platform offers users to invest both via SIP and lumpsum mode. Typically users start a SIP of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 and more but can start with lower amounts as well, depending on the fund they want to invest in.

The platform is perhaps the most transparent of all mutual fund investment platforms there are in the market today. There is complete information about each AMC and the mutual fund you want to invest in. Right from the historical performance of the fund to details about the fund managers.

not only this, but you can also compare the performance of multiple mutual funds of the same or different category, using the fund comparison feature, to make a more informed decision.

Apart from this, there are many inapp resources to help investors at each step of their investment journey. There is an ‘Xperts’ section in the app which has videos to help novice investors ease into investing in mutual funds and provide all beginner level guidance. The tutorials cover everything right from how to use Groww features, redeem existing investments, switch from regular to direct funds, etc.

Who is your target audience? Groww is a platform for anyone who is looking to invest online, is comfortable with web and appbased investing, values transparency, and wants a hasslefree investing experience. Internet-savvy working millennials spread across 800 + cities in India make a huge chunk of our user base.

What is your business model?

We currently offer zero commission investing in direct mutual fund plans, keeping in mind what our users wanted. However, we are also coming up with premium services for mutual funds. Apart from this, we will be launching other investment products such as stocks, ETFS, IPO investing this year, which will have their specific pricing models.

What is the tech behind the app? How does the app function? Tech is at the heart of everything we do at Groww. It helps us create different investor buckets and customize the user flow accordingly. So a first time user who isn’t KYC verified will have a different experience than someone who is a repeat investor or tracking his external funds at Groww. This level of segmentation and the creation of unique user journeys is achieved by superior machine learning models that Groww uses. ML and image processing are also employed during the onboarding and KYC process for document verifications etc to reduce any room for error and make the process instant.

Our tech stack currently includes React native, Springboot, Springcloud, and a micro services-based architecture that allows Groww to scale FAQS that can help a customer pull through their investment journey via the app.

We have an intelligent in-app help and support section that has a vast collection of questions to support users throughout their investment journey. This section can be accessed at any point during the investment ladder and has content in different formats for user ease.

How will this app be developed in the future? We will be scaling up to provide new product and improve our tech stack. Currently, we are in the process of launching stocks for all users. We had earlier launched the beta phase for select users and the response has been overwhelming. Here are a few USPS of stock investing on Groww that we are enabling both through app and web. It is a step towards simplifying an investment product which is considered complex and hence making it easily accessible to retail investors.

USPS of investing in stocks on the Groww app (Single app for multiple products)

Stocks on Groww app is suited for someone new to stock investing, who possesses the necessary zeal and risk profile to grow wealth using stocks, but lacks access to the right information and medium to do so.

The stocks platform has a very clean UI, has jargon-free communication at each step of the investment ladder and ready support for all stock investment related queries. The platform enables quick paperless onboarding and minimises all hurdles a stock investor may face while placing order. Buying stocks on Groww will be akin to buying items on an e-commerce site, such as ease and comfort. The charges are low as well; there is zero brokerage on buying.

Buying stocks should be based on the fundamental analysis of the company. A successful stock investor needs to do proper research on how established the company is, how strong their corporate governance is, how ethical the company is etc. Such information is vital in deciding the investment strategy, however, this research is not consolidated and not offered by brokers or trading platforms. Groww will leverage content through various mediums like videos, blogs, in-app content etc to educate investors about various aspects of a company; entire financial well-being and performance, of the company, will be available on the product page to help investors make a decision.

An app that is simple to use brings all information at the investor’s disposal and creates a glitch-free user experience, essentially eliminates fear against stock market investing, increases affinity and thereby empowers retail investors to enjoy a powerful wealth creation avenue that was earlier beyond their grasp. Such a platform and its resources arm investors with the technical know-how to navigate the world of stocks, invest with a strategy and make maximum out of their investments.n

vivek@mymobile.co.in