Bengaluru-based Groww raises $1.6 million in pre-series A funding

Investment platform, Groww has raised $1.6million in pre-series A round of funding from Insignia Ventures Partners, Lightbridge Partners, Kairos and others, with participation from existing investors Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori.

The Bengaluru based company will use the funds for further strengthening technology and build scalable growth channels. Y Combinator is also an investor in the startup.

According to Groww, there are only 20 million investors in India while more than 200 million have investable income.

"The only way to bring the next 180 million onboard is by making investing very simple and democratic. Groww does this by making the entire process, including KYC, paperless and seamless. A new user can come and start investing within few minutes”, said the company in a statement.

"We challenge ourselves every day with how to keep Groww simple for new investors, while adding more products and functionalities. Our long term goal is to make anything related to finance extremely simple and transparent for users while providing them the best user experience," said Lalit Keshre, Co-founder and chief executive officer of Groww.

Tan Yinglan, founding managing partner, Insignia Ventures Partners said, "Groww is the right idea, at the right time, to enable and empower a new generation of investors in India to build their financial future at a younger age, and we are excited to be on the ground floor of this sea change."

Launched in April 2017, Groww offers direct plans for mutual funds and a seamless and transparent approach to investing via a mobile app and web platform. Groww, partners with all 34 fund houses. In long term, the company will be launching more financial products and value-added services.