Walmart Inc-backed financial technology company PhonePe on Wednesday said it has launched its stockbroking platform, as it looks to deepen its foothold in the country’s burgeoning fintech landscape.
The stockbroking platform – Share.Market – is expected to compete directly with Zerodha, which is one of the few profitable bootstrapped unicorns in India. Other notable players in the market include Upstox and Groww. Both firms are backed by Tiger Global.
The platform, under its subsidiary PhonePe Wealth Broking, is available as a mobile app and a dedicated web platform, enabling retail investors to buy stocks, conduct intra-trades, and purchase curated WealthBaskets and mutual funds.
Share.Market charges a one-time onboarding fee of Rs. 199, in line with Rs. 200 charged by Zerodha.
“In the last few years, we have seen an increase in the percentage of savings going into equities in a big way. There is vibrant growth in the active trading community which trades with different objectives,” Share.Market CEO Ujjwal Jain said.
According to a recent report by Motilal Oswal, India’s top five stock brokers control about 60% of the market. Zerodha leads the market with about 19% followed by Groww, Upstox and Angel Broking.
Founded in 2015, PhonePe, with its 480 million users, controlled a 46% share of the payments market in December, according to the National Payments Corporation of India.
In May, the company raised another $100 million investment from global private equity firm General Atlantic as part of its ongoing fundraising of $1 billion. It is expected to raise another $200 million.
In the past, PhonePe has said it will use the funds to build and scale new businesses like insurance, wealth management, lending, stockbroking, ONDC-based shopping, and account aggregators.
In June, Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer said the Flipkart marketplace and PhonePe payments business in India could become $100-billion businesses buoyed by strong growth.