PhonePe enters stock broking with share.market platform

Fintech unicorn PhonePe has set a target to end the calendar year with 500 million users, up from 480 million in August, co-founder and chief technology officer Rahul Chari told DH.

The company had originally set this target for end-2022.

On Wednesday, PhonePe launched a stock broking platform called share.market. The platform will provide a separate website and mobile application offering investments in equities, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.

Chari, speaking on the sidelines of the launch, said that the fintech leader is likely to launch consumer lending sometime this year. It currently transacts 5.5 billion payments per month and has a total payment value run rate of $1.2 trillion.

“We launched lending, insurance, and payment gateway businesses recently. We started mutual fund distribution four years back and now we are entering the stock broking business under its subsidiary PhonePe Wealth,” said Sameer Nigam, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of PhonePe.

The digital bourse will also feature WealthBaskets, which are collections of stock/investment products based on specific themes, sectors or market trends curated by registered intermediaries. The company has set a timeline of 2 years to fully launch share.market’s product suite.

PhonePe’s expansion into broking services was catered by its acquisition of wealthtech platforms WealthDesk and OpenQ, valued together at $70 million, in 2022. OpenQ founder Sujit Modi will serve as share.market’s chief investment officer while WealthDesk founder Ujjwal Jain will lead as its chief executive.

PhonePe had first indicated interest in India’s crowded stock broking business in 2021 after it applied for Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) licensing for the same. Dominant fintech peers currently offering discount brokerage services include Zerodha, Groww, and Upstoxx. However, the company believes it has an edge over its competitors due to offerings like market intelligence, quantitative analysis-based WealthBaskets and attractive prices.

Brokerage charges on the platform are set at Rs 20 or 0.05 per cent (whichever is lower) per executed order, along with a one-time onboarding fee of Rs 199. The latter will ensure only those seriously considering investing in financial instruments will sign up on the platform, Chari said. Going forward, the company might also introduce paid features for advanced traders, however, it expects retail participation to be higher for now, he added.