Return on India
Episode 9 Building India’s Biggest Stockbroker
Return on India

Episode 9: Building India’s Biggest Stockbroker

Return on India

Episode 9

Building India’s Biggest Stockbroker

Nithin Kamath is the founder and CEO of Zerodha. We cover the step function growth in the business, why areas of the Indian ecosystem are underdeveloped, and thoughts about operating outside of India.

[00:02:36] - [First question] - Overview of Zerodha and its size and scale today 

[00:07:15] - What informed their best case outcome and thoughts on mobile penetration

[00:14:16] - Short positions and contours of hedge funds in India compared to the US

[00:20:04] - Relatively low levels of leverage in the Indian ecosystem 

[00:23:12] - Why areas of the Indian ecosystem are underdeveloped compared to the US

[00:27:03] - Lucking out by not getting professional investors in their company 

[00:35:07] - How the recent flood of capital into India affected their business

[00:38:34] - Thoughts about operating outside of India and transferable principals 

[00:41:49] - Unpacking the framework of seeing India as a series of clusters and villages

[00:44:35] - The bear and bull case for India over the next decade

Building India’s Biggest Stockbroker

Introduction

Romeen
My guest today is Nithin Kamath, Founder and CEO of Zerodha. The last 10 years in the Indian start-up ecosystem have been flushed with venture capital, especially from the West. The country understandably has hit an inflection point and capital allocators are bullish on the potential to build world-scale businesses in India today. One of the most fascinating businesses in India that's not as talked about and has taken no outside investor capital, though, is Zerodha, India's largest stockbroker. And the scale is staggering.

Today, the company is 13 years old, has over 11 million users and last year did over $250 million in profit. It's a story of building the business the right way and for the long-term. I was thrilled to chat with Nithin today to explore the step function growth in the business, the market and the country that enabled Zerodha's rapid ascent. Please enjoy my conversation with Nithin Kamath.

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