Zerodha gets in-principle approval from Sebi to start mutual fund business

India’s largest broking firm Zerodha has received in-principle approval to set up an asset management company (AMC) company. With this, the discount brokerage joins entities like Samco Securities and Bajaj Finserv to get market regulator Sebi’s nod for a mutual fund (MF).

“So, we just got our in-principle approval for our AMC (MF) license. I guess now comes the hard part,” tweeted Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of Zerodha, on Wednesday evening.

In February 2020, the broking company had applied for the AMC license.

Last week, Bajaj Finserv received in-principle approval from Sebi to set up the shop in the Rs 35-trillion Mutual Fund (MF) industry. The Indian MF industry has seen a huge rise in assets, as well as participation from investors, attracting more into the money managing business. In the past few months, the Indian MF industry has seen new players like NJ India and Samco Securities setting up shop.

Currently, there are 44 players in the industry with Samco Securities being the 45th player.

According to Sebi, as of June, there were around five entities that were waiting to get in-principal approval. Some of the players are Alchemy Capital Management, Helios Capital Management and Unifi Capital Private Limited among others.