<p>Practice makes a man perfect, goes the saying. Following the same principle, Bengaluru-based entrepreneur Ajay Lakhotia founded a mobile application StockGro that trains people to trade in the stock markets. Unlike other applications that impart theoretical knowledge to potential investors, this application puts the baby in the bathtub - in this case, explore the world of stocks. </p>.<p>As you download the application and register yourself, virtual money of Rs 10 lakh will be credited to your dummy trading account. The user can trade with this dummy money.</p>.<p>This application, unlike other portals, does not impart theoretical knowledge of the markets. Instead, the aim is to create a community of users where people share experiences and create their own portfolios.</p>.<p>“We aim to get communities of 50 or 60 people on board, not just single users,” says Lakhotia, whose main strategy is to work with B-schools and colleges across the country to expand StockGro’s user base.</p>.<p>“Everything but the money is real,” says Lakhotia. “People do not enter the markets due to the fear of losing money and also lack of understanding.”</p>.<p>“We want people to understand various asset classes and get over the fear of such asset classes.”</p>.<p>Users of the application do not work in silos. The application conducts hourly, daily, and weekly competitions to see each other’s performance.</p>.<p>The silver lining is that participants get rewards also. Those who create the best portfolio in the league (game) they enter, take back home some money. </p>.<p>“We are incentivising users to be more active on the application,” says Lakhotia. “At present, we are giving away Rs 6 lakh a day as prize money. This comes from the fee that a user pays to enroll in a competition.” Registration for each competition can be as low as Rs 100 per game. Setting aside the company’s margins, the rest of the money is distributed as prize money. On average, a lakh users participate in various games.</p>.<p>While the daily games cater to the students, the weekly games are for working professionals, who do not have time to log in daily.</p>.<p>Just a year old, StockGro started right before the nationwide lockdown imposed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, it has over two lakh users.</p>.<p>“We are a one-of-a-kind startup in the space of trading and people asked me why I wanted to get into it especially at a time when people were getting out of the stock markets, but I couldn’t wait for someone else to do it and then follow them,” says Lakhotia.</p>.<p>“My first hire was just a day before the lockdown and a lot of others I wanted to bring on board were skeptical of joining as they did not want to leave their secure jobs at such a juncture.”</p>.<p>In the initial round of raising funds, the company raised Rs 6.5 crore from VC funds and investors like Cred’s Kunal Shah. Though the company states that it has not burnt more than 60% of the funds raised in the seed round, StockGro is looking to raise more funds in the coming quarter.</p>.<p>“Despite a volatile environment, we managed to raise Rs 6.5 crore when our actual target was Rs 3 crore,” says Lakhotia. </p>
<p>Practice makes a man perfect, goes the saying. Following the same principle, Bengaluru-based entrepreneur Ajay Lakhotia founded a mobile application StockGro that trains people to trade in the stock markets. Unlike other applications that impart theoretical knowledge to potential investors, this application puts the baby in the bathtub - in this case, explore the world of stocks. </p>.<p>As you download the application and register yourself, virtual money of Rs 10 lakh will be credited to your dummy trading account. The user can trade with this dummy money.</p>.<p>This application, unlike other portals, does not impart theoretical knowledge of the markets. Instead, the aim is to create a community of users where people share experiences and create their own portfolios.</p>.<p>“We aim to get communities of 50 or 60 people on board, not just single users,” says Lakhotia, whose main strategy is to work with B-schools and colleges across the country to expand StockGro’s user base.</p>.<p>“Everything but the money is real,” says Lakhotia. “People do not enter the markets due to the fear of losing money and also lack of understanding.”</p>.<p>“We want people to understand various asset classes and get over the fear of such asset classes.”</p>.<p>Users of the application do not work in silos. The application conducts hourly, daily, and weekly competitions to see each other’s performance.</p>.<p>The silver lining is that participants get rewards also. Those who create the best portfolio in the league (game) they enter, take back home some money. </p>.<p>“We are incentivising users to be more active on the application,” says Lakhotia. “At present, we are giving away Rs 6 lakh a day as prize money. This comes from the fee that a user pays to enroll in a competition.” Registration for each competition can be as low as Rs 100 per game. Setting aside the company’s margins, the rest of the money is distributed as prize money. On average, a lakh users participate in various games.</p>.<p>While the daily games cater to the students, the weekly games are for working professionals, who do not have time to log in daily.</p>.<p>Just a year old, StockGro started right before the nationwide lockdown imposed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, it has over two lakh users.</p>.<p>“We are a one-of-a-kind startup in the space of trading and people asked me why I wanted to get into it especially at a time when people were getting out of the stock markets, but I couldn’t wait for someone else to do it and then follow them,” says Lakhotia.</p>.<p>“My first hire was just a day before the lockdown and a lot of others I wanted to bring on board were skeptical of joining as they did not want to leave their secure jobs at such a juncture.”</p>.<p>In the initial round of raising funds, the company raised Rs 6.5 crore from VC funds and investors like Cred’s Kunal Shah. Though the company states that it has not burnt more than 60% of the funds raised in the seed round, StockGro is looking to raise more funds in the coming quarter.</p>.<p>“Despite a volatile environment, we managed to raise Rs 6.5 crore when our actual target was Rs 3 crore,” says Lakhotia. </p>
