* Kotak Securities has recently acquired nearly 10% stake in the financial markets-focused firm
Kolkata-based financial markets education and analytics-focused fintech firm - Kredent InfoEdge Pvt. Ltd. (KIPL), which owns and operates the platforms - StockEdge and Elearnmarkets.com, aims to grow its user base from over 23 lakh currently to 1 crore by FY23, following the recent capital infusion of INR 10 crore by Kotak Securities. The company is also looking to raise Series A in a few months from now.
KIPL, the holding company for both StockEdge and Elearnmarkets.com, has invested in building an alternate ecosystem for first time investors in India with the intent to democratise the financial markets. Currently, the company has two growing platforms under its fold - Elearnmarkets.com for financial education and StockEdge for data analytics in stock markets and mutual funds.
Launched in 2014, Elearnmarkets.com has evolved from a standalone education portal to becoming India’s largest platform for practical financial market education with over 200 market experts sharing their knowledge in 9 languages with over 10 lakh learners. The platform has grown by 400% in the last 15 months. On completion of the relevant courses, the learners receive certification from NSE Academy, MCX and NCDEX.
StockEdge, which was launched in 2016 to help traders and retail investors obtain structured data of listed companies along with cutting-edge analytics for decision-making, has now evolved into a full-fledged equity and mutual fund research tool with over 2 million app downloads and over 7 lakh monthly active users. The platform has doubled its userbase over the last 15 months.
60% of users in both the platforms are first time market entrants in the average age group of 24-30. In terms of gender distribution, about 20% of the total users are women. Similarly, the platforms have witnessed a significant uptick in users from Tier 2/3 cities. The company sees these segments as the next big growth drivers.
The company will deploy the funds raised towards the strategies of the future – launching a social investing platform, a marketplace of experts as well as gamification of financial market education. While the company already offers content and other services in 9 vernacular languages, endeavors are underway to increase that further, to enable the participation of people from across India towards the journey of financial independence, entrepreneurship, inclusion and efficient investing.
Commenting on the market opportunity, Co-founder & CEO Vineet Patawari said, “Financial markets are certainly experiencing a dramatic shift – from a traditional commission-driven model to a DIY user-driven platform model. The emergence of direct equity as an asset class has been greatly augmented by the pandemic with over 1.50 crores new investors added in the last 15 months in the Indian market. With retail participation in India at a measly 4% of the population, there is sizeable headroom to grow, and as a full-stack player in a highly fragmented market, we are well poised to capitalize on the post-pandemic opportunity awaiting us.”
Speaking about the future, Co-founder & MD Vivek Bajaj said, “We started as a financial education company and evolved to become an alternate ecosystem for retail investors covering learn, analyze, collaborate and transact as stages of the investor’s journey. With the current round of capital infusion by Kotak Securities and others, we are on track to fulfil our mission to truly empower retail investors in India.”
The company follows a freemium business model across both platforms. In Elearnmarkets.com, consumers get free learning content and progress to transact by buying specialized advanced learning modules like courses or webinars. In StockEdge, they subscribe to advanced paid features such as actionable analytics and premium community access.
About Kredent InfoEdge Pvt. Ltd.:
The company is building an alternate ecosystem for empowering retail investors in India. The company is working with multiple intermediaries and also with direct investors in making the relevant knowledge and right data widely available to everyone. The company is extremely focused on Bharat and want to be one of the catalysts for right financial inclusion in India.
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