The Indian stock market, for decades, was an exclusive club dominated by high brokerage fees and slow, complicated platforms. For the average person, investing was intimidating and expensive. Then came Zerodha, founded by Nithin Kamath, with a simple, disruptive idea: make investing accessible, fast, and radically cheap.
Zerodha didn’t just build a better broker; they democratized access, challenging an entire legacy system head-on.
Betting on Tech Over Branches
Nithin Kamath’s experience as a trader showed him the fundamental flaw in the system: the commission structure was inflated. He and his brother, Nikhil, decided to build their brokerage from the ground up on technology. Their core gamble was massive: Zero Brokerage for Equity Delivery and a flat fee for intraday trading. This model was revolutionary, but it meant sacrificing easy, immediate revenue for long-term scale—a huge risk when you lack the deep pockets of established players.
The Problem They Solved
- The Product as Marketing: The Kite platform wasn’t just functional; it was intuitive, fast, and mobile-first, offering an experience light-years ahead of the competition.
- Education is Authority: They launched Zerodha Varsity, a completely free, comprehensive educational module. By teaching millions how to invest wisely, they built unparalleled trust and attracted a loyal user base hungry for knowledge.
- Focus on Fundamentals: By remaining lean and aggressively bootstrapped for years, they maintained the low-cost structure while others struggled with high operational burn rates.
Back then,👉 brokers charged high commissions, and platforms were outdated.
👉Zerodha introduced a flat-fee model — ₹20 per trade — and a clean digital platform.
👉It became a revolution in India’s stock market.
In June 2020, Zerodha became a “unicorn” with a self-assigned valuation of around $1 billion based on an ESOP buyback.
Zerodha had about 1.3 million customers in early 2020, which rose to nearly 10 million by the end of 2022.
The Revenue Model
As of May 2024, it has 7.5 million active customers registered with the NSE, making it the second largest stockbroker in India ….
One of the top most startup and earns over ₹6,000 crore in revenue .
