Zerodha Broking Ltd is an Indian brokerage and financial services company, based in Bengaluru. It offers an online trading platform that facilitates institutional and retail trading of stocks, derivatives, currencies, commodities, mutual funds and bonds. It is a member of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), and the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX).[3][4]
Zerodha was founded and bootstrapped by brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath.[5][6][7] As of May 2024, it has 7.5 million active customers registered with the NSE, making it the second largest stockbroker in India.[8][9]
Zerodha was founded in August 2010 by brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath. The name Zerodha, indicates a combination of words for the company's ideals: zero and rodha, the Sanskrit word for 'barrier'.[10][11]
In 2019, Zerodha became the largest retail stockbroker in India by active client base, overtaking ICICI Securities. It contributed up to 2% of daily retail volumes on Indian stock exchanges at the time.[12]
In June 2020, Zerodha became a "unicorn" with a self-assigned valuation of around $1 billion based on an ESOP buyback.[13] Zerodha had about 1.3 million customers in early 2020, which rose to nearly 10 million by the end of 2022.[14]
In 2020, Zerodha applied for a licence to set up an AMC mutual fund in India[15] and launched its fund house in 2023.[16]
A fixed commission of up to ₹20 is applied to all equity trading and derivative transactions, regardless of its size. Equity delivery is commission-free.[12] The company also offers commodity trading through its wholly owned subsidiary, Zerodha Commodities Pvt. Ltd.[17][18][19]
In 2014, Rainmatter was founded as an early-stage fund focused on financing start-ups in new technology and new product development. Some notable investments by Rainmatter are in startups such as Cred, Finception, Smallcase, and Sensibull.[20][21] The company has also backed GoldenPi and WintWealth, which are bond purchasing platforms.[22][23]
In 2019, Zerodha started True Beacon, an alternative investment fund (AIF) with a defensive investment strategy.[24]
In October 2023, Zerodha launched Zerodha Fund House, an asset management company, in partnership with Smallcase. It focused on index funds and had only direct plans which paid no commissions to distributors.[25][26] In March 2024, the fund house had an AUM of ₹10 billion (US$120 million).[27]
On 15 October 2024, Zerodha announced the launch of FLOSS Fund dedicated to Free/Libre and Open Source projects globally. Zerodha committed to giving up to $1 million per year to support developers and communities that create and maintain such projects.[28]
There have been multiple reports of technical issues including glitches, system outages and connectivity issues on Zerodha's Kite platform, especially on days with high market volatility and F&O expiry days.[29][30][31][32]
In November 2020, Livemint reported that some Zerodha traders complained of being unable to access its Kite platform due to a technical issue. Several users took to Twitter to report a login issue. Zerodha, in an official statement, acknowledged the problem.[33]
