High Stakes

Fintech wizkid and the founder of Zerodha, Nithin Kamath, has parlayed a personal passion for trading into building the country’s leading broking firm in the span of a decade. And now he’s overseeing a period of explosive growth for the company in the midst of a pandemic, thanks to a new generation of first-time investors. Arun Janardhan gets the low-down

- Arun Janardhan

A bicycle, pinned majestically on a wall, makes a frequent appearance in video chats with Nithin Kamath. Its elevated stature, according to him, is indicative that the cycle is not being used enough. One reason for that is Kamath has been fairly busy, and Bengaluru is not the cycle-friendly city it used to be. Besides ed-tech, eSports and a few other wholly digital businesses, Kamath’s company Zerodha Broking Ltd has been one of the beneficiaries of an extended nationwide lockdown. Boredom, financial insecurity, spare time and not enough cricket on TV has driven young people to search for investment options instead.

Online stockbroker firm Zerodha has become an apt entry point for these new investors, propelled by a falling stock market and lower interest rates offered by banks. While businesses across the world shuttered down or hobbled along uncertainly, Zerodha added a million new customers since the pandemic – about 2,00,000 monthly – to its existing two million inventory.

The founder and CEO of Zerodha explains how the firm reacted fast by switching to #WFH three weeks before lockdown brought the country to a grinding halt. “It gave people [its employees] enough time to buy furniture, get their internet sorted, get new chairs, you know…” he says, grinning. “In today’s world, fast beats slow, rather than big beating small.”