India’s Kamas brothers thrive in move to disrupt stock trading

This article is part of Forbes article on richest people in India 2022.See full list shee.

The work-from-home trend has allowed brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath to supersize pioneering online discount broker Zerodha. Since the start of the 2020 pandemic, the Bangalore-based company has grown its customer base nearly fivefold to over 10 million in September.

Zerodha posted solid growth in the year ended March 31st. Revenue increased by 82% to Rs 49.6 billion ($609 million) and net profit increased by 87% to Rs 21 billion. The brothers, who own private companies, climbed to number 58 on the list with net worths of $3.45 billion.

The brothers disrupted the securities industry with their 2010 launch of Zerodha with the goal of making investing more user-friendly, transparent and affordable. (Zerodha means zero ‘rodha’ or barrier in Sanskrit.) It was one of the first brokerage firms to fully disclose all fees, charging either Rs.20 or 0.03% per trade. Keeping it low has attracted day traders. .

Competition is heating up, with other discount brokers offering similar features joining the fray. We innovated by adding real-time “nudge” alerts on stocks that

New account openings are down 20% year-on-year as the market is currently struggling. But the Kamaths are sticking to their marketing tactics and gaining clients solely by word of mouth. Nikhil, the company’s chief financial officer, said:

In September, the brothers launched a wealth management company called True Beacon, which offers products for the ultra-high net worth. They also operate a mutual fund business and a non-bank financial company that provides loans on securities.