Groww and Zerodha to battle it out in mutual fund business after wooing India’s youngsters into stock market investing

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has today approved Groww’s acquisition of Indiabulls AMC.
• Reportedly, Groww has acquired the mutual fund business for ₹175 crore.
• The 5-year-old startup Groww is a stock broker and a registered mutual fund distributor with AMFI.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Nextbillion Technology’s -- the parent of Groww -- acquisition of Indiabulls AMC.

The mutual fund (MF) segment seems to be a lucrative opportunity for new age fintech startups in the country. Recently, investment platform Zerodha had also received an approval from India’s market regulator to enter the mutual fund business.

The announcement comes months after markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had allowed digital finance platforms to enter the mutual funds business and Groww has become the first fintech to enter the asset management space.

Bengaluru-based Groww is a stockbroking startup founded by former Flipkart employees – Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal.

Reportedly, the digital platform bought Indiabulls AMC for ₹175 crore.

Indiabulls AMC is one of the smallest mutual fund companies with an average assets under management (AUM) of ₹631 crore in a ₹36 trillion MF industry. It has 11 schemes across equity, debt and hybrid categories. Schemes of the mutual fund business are averagely rated due to its performance. So, it needs to be seen how Groww can transform the MF business.

Groww seems to be well capitalised, given it has raised $83 million at a billion dollar valuation from US-based investor Tiger Global and others in April.

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