The broking market is dominated by established players such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, Angel One and Motilal Oswal, but venture capital investors are backing a new generation of brokerages on the belief that the next phase of growth will be driven less by market access and more by helping investors decide what to buy and trade.
The thesis has attracted funding for startups such as Trackk, which has raised nearly $5 million since last year from investors including Lightspeed, and Sahi, which recently secured a $33-million Series B round led by investors including Elevation Capital and Accel.
The broking industry has undergone multiple shifts over the past decade. Zerodha popularised low-cost trading, while Groww expanded participation among first-time digital investors. Players such as Upstox, 5paisa and Dhan built scale by targeting specific customer segments, while traditional brokerages upgraded their digital offerings.
Access Problem Solved
Investors now say that most platforms have solved the problem of opening accounts and executing trades, leaving a larger opportunity around investor discovery, education and decision-making.
“None of the firms are directly catering to the next 50 million investors who will join the markets over the coming decade,” Romit Mehta, partner at Lightspeed, said. “They will need handholding, more education and, being used to global best, they will need a platform that feels like it is built for them versus feeling legacy.”
Mumbai-based Trackk is targeting younger investors. Founded by 22-year-old Vedant Gupte, the platform says about 90% of its users are between 18 and 25 years old and it has registered nearly 200,000 sign-ups ahead of a wider rollout planned next week.
Gupte said the industry’s focus so far has largely been on making investing easier, while helping users identify investment opportunities remains a relatively under-served area. The company’s “Opinions” feature links user responses to popular culture and current events with historical stock market performance to introduce investing concepts.
The focus on solving a specific user problem creates room for new entrants even in a crowded market, investors said. Mehta pointed to the success of Groww among first-time investors and Dhan among active traders as evidence that specialised products can still gain traction.
AI Supercharging the Stack
Elevation Capital sees a similar opportunity through artificial intelligence. Vaas Bhaskar, partner at the firm, said incumbent brokerages have largely addressed market access but not the challenge of helping retail investors decide what to trade or invest in.
“The last few years have seen profound shifts in DPI, broker-side infrastructure and mobile user experience (UX), and AI now supercharges the entire stack,” Bhaskar said.
Founded in 2023 by former Swiggy CTO Dale Vaz and others, Sahi is focused on active retail traders and offers integrated charting, analytics and execution tools. The company estimates that it accounts for around 3% of retail options trading volumes. Since launching in January 2025, it has onboarded nearly 400,000 demat accounts and scaled to more than one million trades a day.
The investments suggest that while the broking market may appear crowded, investors still see room for platforms that cater to distinct user groups and use new technologies to address gaps beyond basic trading access.