Smallcase raises $40 million from Amazon, others, BFSI News, ET BFSI
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With this, the total capital raised by smallcase has crossed $60 million, the Bengaluru-based startup said on Wednesday.
The round marked the first investment by Amazon in a wealth management fintech in India. The US technology major made the investment through its $250-million early stage tech fund Amazon SMBhav Venture Fund (ASVF) launched in April.
The round also saw participation from existing investors including Sequoia Capital India, Blume Ventures, Beenext, DSP Group, Arkam Ventures, WEH Ventures, HDFC Bank Group and Utpal Sheth, chief executive of Rare Enterprises.
Sameer Shroff, cofounder and managing director of Faering Capital, will join the board of smallcase once the transaction is closed.
“Globally, we have seen a trend of increased retail participation in equity markets and in India smallcase is pioneering digital access for retail investors through their innovative products and channel partnerships,” Shroff said.
The newly infused capital will be used to launch a wider suite of investment products for retail investors as well as enhancing the platform and its capabilities, the Bengaluru-based company said in a statement.
“The last two years have seen remarkable interest from Indian retail investors in the equity markets, and we are inspired to see smallcase become the primary gateway to stocks and ETFs for millions of new investors,” said Vasanth Kamath, founder and CEO of smallcase.
Founded in 2015 by Kamath and fellow IIT-Kharagpur alumni Anugrah Shrivastava and Rohan Gupta, smallcase specialises as an investment ecosystem of over 250 businesses in the capital markets space including brokerages, advisors, investment managers and digital wealth platforms.
“We are focused on expanding our offerings to cement smallcase’s position as the premier portfolio investing layer across asset classes for the retail investor and are excited to welcome our new investor partners with extensive experience in scaling technology and financial services businesses,” Kamath said.
Since Bengaluru-based startup’s Series B raise of $14 million in September 2020, its user base has doubled to cross 3 million and the volumes transacted have grown 2.5x to Rs 12,500 crore, the company said in its media statement.
Amazon has previously invested in insurance player Acko General Insurance Ltd and credit provider Capital Float. ET reported earlier this year that the US tech major is in talks to close a funding round in neo-bank startup Open as well.
“We are excited to partner with smallcase in their journey to offer innovative consumer investment products,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “By increasing product selection and convenience, this will provide an additional channel for consumers to participate in the equity markets.”
India’s retail investment segment has seen considerable traction over the pandemic as low bank deposit rates and abundance of liquidity has helped indices gain rapidly even as fintech firms such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Paytm Money have witnessed significant growth on their respective platforms.
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