The realisation
Before the pandemic, millions of Indians neither had the time nor the awareness to make money work for them. But, the pandemic opened their eyes to why hard-earned money deserves attention.
The history
In March 2020, troubled by a threatening virus & locked in the despair of homes, people were looking for productive distractions. And thus came into existence an investing revolution. As the stock markets crashed, retail investor interests piqued & many were looking for ways to learn about markets.
Thankfully, I had spent years observing the markets & noticed how there was so much interest but little education. And that’s why, much before the revolution, I had begun working on the idea of a platform that awarded virtual money to users & allowed them to participate in stock market competitions. The idea was to provide risk-free, practical & incentivised learning.
The pandemic was as much an opportunity as it was a challenge. On one hand, retail investor curiosity was at an all-time high but on the other, everything from funds to talent had dried up. Yet, my team and I decided to continue with our vision of building StockGro and making India investment savvy.
The impact
From beta testing the app with 500 college students to the current times when over 15 million Indians encompassing school students to working professionals practice trading with virtual money on the app everyday. We have partnered with over 500 premium educational institutions & corporates. All of this was achieved by a team of less than 15 people in around 1.5 years.
During the worst times, several of our users have survived on cash rewards won through StockGro leagues & many others have transitioned into stock market influencers themselves. We have partnered with reputed educational bodies like ICAI NIRC to launch the Investor Awareness Program under the mandate from SEBI. To fuel the growth further, we have even raised 3 rounds of funding, including a $32Mn Series A round from global investors!
The Future
If you are beginning to get excited about all that you’ve read, I recommend that you save it for what the future holds in store. Because, at StockGro, we intend to persevere until every Indian has understood the magic of personal finance.
Investing or trading must be less about complexity & jargon and more about simplicity & progress. Hence, we will leverage every tool under the sun to make stock markets simple .
Be our pilot
And to make this happen, we need more pilots on our rocketship. So, if you identify with our cause & can contribute to it, then drop me or my teammates a ‘Hi’ on LinkedIn.
See you in our next team huddle 🙂