Ajay Lakhotia
Founder & CEO
With the rise in digital investment platforms and financial awareness, a greater proportion of Indian youth is starting to invest. It is a great indicator of growth as stocks are an excellent tool to compound wealth and the key is to know how to leverage them! When drawing a comparison between traditionally 'safer' investment options like FDs, stocks have always proven to be the better choice in terms of overall returns.
This becomes even more apparent as re-cent FD rates are lower than inflation numbers. Sadly, many youngsters assume that stocks are tricky & prefer to delegate such investments to stock broking firms that invest on their behalf. The flip side, however, is that delegation comes with a lack of transparency and makes investors anxious about their money! To prevent such para-doxes, a unique platform called Stockgro was founded in 2020 by Ajay Lakhotia. As a venture capitalist & angel investor, Ajay spent years understanding how people take investment & trading decisions based on social proof and validation.
Stockgro is a novel idea that arose from the absence of any off-the-shelf products for risk-free financial education. The organization is on a mission to educate millennials and other investing enthusiasts about the stock market. It aims to help people learn how to leverage the market and understand financial jargon, so they can make smart investing choices.
The Inception Story
After conducting an extensive study, Ajay Lakhotia found that no international company really caters to market enthusiasts who require a risk-free, practical, and rewarding approach to learning about stocks. The Indian investment system was mostly focused on FDs, and other such investment opportunities, which ultimately did not provide many benefits. He discovered that there was a big distrust in the stock market in the minds of the Indian audience, which inspired him to overcome innumerable challenges to conceptualize Stockgro as an educational platform.
"We help people learn about the stock market in a fun and interactive manner using virtual money. On the platform, users compete in trading competitions, discover strategies by interacting with peers & experts, and learn trading & investing in a risk-free, yet practical manner", states Ajay Lakhotia, Founder and CEO, StockGro. With the help of this platform, customers can get over three major barriers, including the apprehension of losing funds in the market, a lack of understanding of financial terminologies, and the complexity of employing financial instruments.
A premier social trading platform in India, Stockgro, enables customers to share their investment ideas, discuss opinions, and create portfolios in exchange for rewards. Within two years of its debut, it established itself as the preferred venue for educational institutions to hold stock market competitions. Within a span of one year, from March 2021-2022, Stockgro boomed from just 1 million users to over 15 million active users. Stockgro has worked with more than 500 prestigious business schools, including IITs, IIMs, and AIIMs. The firm is larger than most Indian brokers, with a user base of over 22 million. It is India's largest social trad-ing platform, with 12 million MAUs and 3 million DAUs.
Offering a Range of Solutions
The fintech industry has been embracing breakthroughs in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, AI & ML, and access to financial services is faster than ever before. As a result, the investment space is also experiencing an upsurge and will continue to do so. And given that Stockgro works to make investing and trading risk-free, accessible, and straightforward, the firm has earned the numero uno status within the fin-ed tech sector.
Because India has primarily been a savings-based economy, the nation has experienced negative returns owing to low FD rates and poor real estate returns! It is now time to switch gears & become an investing-based economy. The Indian youth must, therefore, embrace new investment avenues. However, India's education system does not help create such a foundation for the future workforce. To fill in this gap and help the next generation create wealth, Stockgro facilitates an educational experience by promoting the exchange of in-vesting & trading ideas.
"Stockgro is bridging this gap by extending a social learning and trading platform for users to interact with educators, fund managers, influencers, friends and colleagues, and making the learning process fun through gamification", further states Ajay. The plat-form provides competitions or tournaments where traders may create portfolios and earn rank-based cash rewards. This is especially helpful in encouraging those who aspire to pursue investing. Users can test their trading strategies without risking any real capital and also consult professionals who have been onboarded to answer any investing/trading-related questions. Stockgro users play, learn, and earn - they under-stand financial jargon through bite-sized content, develop trading skills without risking real capital, and earn a chance to win money by competing against other traders.
"Stockgro sits at the niche intersection of finTech & edtech - both of which are transforming at a fast pace and are impacting every sphere of life from payments to education & inclusivity. Simultaneously, young India has seen a burst of interest in the investment space with crores of new Demat accounts being opened", adds Ajay. The app provides a thriving forum for conversations on a broad range of subjects, including macroeconomics and financial planning. Stockgro has also created social chat groups on the app, wherein experts give their opinions and users exchange knowledge.
One of Stockgro's highlights is that it allows users to track the portfolios of friends and industry experts, promoting peer learning. With bite-sized articles on fascinating financial subjects like cryptocurrencies and advanced analytics, the StockGyan component of the app takes this learning to the next level. The app also offers streamlined explanations and actual market information. Additionally, Stockgro has worked with educational institutions like ICAI-NIRC to incorporate real-world stock market learning into their curriculum.
Future Roadmap
In the short duration since its inception, Stockgro has achieved a star reputation, which has led to several accolades and prompted many industry experts to partner with the firm. "We are keen on growing our educational & corporate partnerships manifold. Our key motto will be to continue making investment social by building a resilient community of financial enthusiasts & experts who grow together. We aim to make Stockgro the one-stop solution for all personal finance needs", states Ajay.
Stock market experts, too, are very keen to partner with Stockgro, and 2000+ top market influencers & experts are expected to be onboarded by the end of 2022. The team further plans to expand its offerings to include various new asset classes, including forex, commodity, gold, and bonds, and add exciting new fea-tures comprising technical and macro trend analysis that make profitable investing hassle-free, easy, and accessible to the wide community base.
Offering a Range of Solutions
The fintech industry has been embracing breakthroughs in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, AI & ML, and access to financial services is faster than ever before. As a result, the investment space is also experiencing an upsurge and will continue to do so. And given that Stockgro works to make investing and trading risk-free, accessible, and straightforward, the firm has earned the numero uno status within the fin-ed tech sector.
Because India has primarily been a savings-based economy, the nation has experienced negative returns owing to low FD rates and poor real estate returns! It is now time to switch gears & become an investing-based economy. The Indian youth must, therefore, embrace new investment avenues. However, India's education system does not help create such a foundation for the future workforce. To fill in this gap and help the next generation create wealth, Stockgro facilitates an educational experience by promoting the exchange of in-vesting & trading ideas.
"Stockgro is bridging this gap by extending a social learning and trading platform for users to interact with educators, fund managers, influencers, friends and colleagues, and making the learning process fun through gamification", further states Ajay. The plat-form provides competitions or tournaments where traders may create portfolios and earn rank-based cash rewards. This is especially helpful in encouraging those who aspire to pursue investing. Users can test their trading strategies without risking any real capital and also consult professionals who have been onboarded to answer any investing/trading-related questions. Stockgro users play, learn, and earn - they under-stand financial jargon through bite-sized content, develop trading skills without risking real capital, and earn a chance to win money by competing against other traders.
"Stockgro sits at the niche intersection of finTech & edtech - both of which are transforming at a fast pace and are impacting every sphere of life from payments to education & inclusivity. Simultaneously, young India has seen a burst of interest in the investment space with crores of new Demat accounts being opened", adds Ajay. The app provides a thriving forum for conversations on a broad range of subjects, including macroeconomics and financial planning. Stockgro has also created social chat groups on the app, wherein experts give their opinions and users exchange knowledge.
One of Stockgro's highlights is that it allows users to track the portfolios of friends and industry experts, promoting peer learning. With bite-sized articles on fascinating financial subjects like cryptocurrencies and advanced analytics, the StockGyan component of the app takes this learning to the next level. The app also offers streamlined explanations and actual market information. Additionally, Stockgro has worked with educational institutions like ICAI-NIRC to incorporate real-world stock market learning into their curriculum.
Stockgro's ultimate goal is to make personal finance easy, accessible, and fun for all - a dream that inspires the team every day
Future Roadmap
In the short duration since its inception, Stockgro has achieved a star reputation, which has led to several accolades and prompted many industry experts to partner with the firm. "We are keen on growing our educational & corporate partnerships manifold. Our key motto will be to continue making investment social by building a resilient community of financial enthusiasts & experts who grow together. We aim to make Stockgro the one-stop solution for all personal finance needs", states Ajay.
Stock market experts, too, are very keen to partner with Stockgro, and 2000+ top market influencers & experts are expected to be onboarded by the end of 2022. The team further plans to expand its offerings to include various new asset classes, including forex, commodity, gold, and bonds, and add exciting new fea-tures comprising technical and macro trend analysis that make profitable investing hassle-free, easy, and accessible to the wide community base.
