Groww App is an online discount-service brokerage company. it offers a wide range of financial products and services. The company deals in services that include Equity, Mutual Funds, IPOs, Futures & Options, FDs, etc.
Bengaluru-based Groww is a fully owned online platform of its parent entity ‘Next Billion Technology’.
Incorporated in April 2016, Groww is one of the fastest-growing stock broking companies in India. In a short span of 6 years, the company has bagged over a million registered users. And it is operating in over 800 locations worldwide.
Background
Founded by former ‘Flipkart’ employees Lalit Keshre, Ishan Bansal, Harsh Jain, and Neeraj Singh, and has a valuation of $1 billion. In the beginning, the company started off as a mutual fund investment platform in 2016. In 2020, Groww ventured into stockbroking services through its ‘Groww’ app. As of the 2020-2021 financial year, the company has raised over $140 million. Currently, the company has 8 million registered users for its Mutual Fund offerings.
| Company | Details |
| CIN | U65990KA2021PTC143517 |
| Company Name | GROWW CREDITSERV TECHNOLOGY PRIVATE LIMITED |
| Parent Company | Nextbillion Technology |
| Year of Incorporation | 2016 |
| Company Status | Active |
| RoC | RoC-Bangalore |
| Registration Number | 143517 |
| Company Category | Limited by Shares |
| Company Sub Category | Non-govt company |
| Class of Company | Private |
| Date of Incorporation | 25 January 2021 |
| Age of Company | ~6 years |
| Activity | Mutual Funds, Equity, IPOs, F&O, FDs, etc. |
Products & Services
Groww offers a wide range of financial products and services to its clients. It is a discount-service brokerage. The company facilitates you to trade in Stocks, Mutual Funds, IPO, Digital Gold, ETF (Exchange-Traded Funds), etc.
The company claims to provide brokerage services at slashed rates.
Groww works on the principle of providing investment services as simple as doing online shopping.
And to do this, the company provides an app named ‘Groww. The app enables you to invest in Mutual Funds and Stocks effortlessly in a few easy steps.
Salient features of Grow:
- Invest in Mutual Funds and pay Rs. 0/- as a commission fee
- Flat brokerage rates (maximum Rs. 20/-)
- For your assistance and support, journals/e-books/blogs are available
- Paperless online account opening process
- Invest in various disciplines such as Digital Gold, Corporate FDs, US Stocks, etc.
- You can switch from external regular mutual funds to direct mutual funds
As Groww is a discount-service brokerage. It does not provide some typical services that come with a full-service brokerage. This might be a downside for a new investor. but on the upside, you are charged much less for subscribing to essential services.
You can choose Groww if you are proficient in stocks or just want to subscribe basic services.
Accounts Basics
To trade in stocks you need to be registered with a firm or broker. You cannot directly trade with a stock exchange. A trading account is a fundamental requirement to buy or sell your stocks.
However, a trading account is necessary to trade in stocks but it does not hold your assets. The assets that are realized by your transactions go to a Demat account. For this, you need a second account, a ‘Demat’ account.
A ‘Demat’ account is just like a digital locker where you keep all your assets in digital format. However, a ‘Demat’ account keeps your assets but you cannot do trading with it. You can only trade by using your trading account.
The word ‘Demat’ is an abbreviation of ‘dematerialization’. It means you dematerialize your physical assets into digital format. With this, your assets changes from physical format to electronic format.
Read also: Earning Apps in India
Physical bonds such as paper securities, bank certificates, etc. are prone to risk. Fire damage, forgery, theft, physical damage, etc are the potential causes.
The SEBI has made it mandatory to have a ‘Demat’ account to hold shares and assets.
With just having a trading account, you are only able to trade in ‘Mutual Funds’, ETF, Gold, F&O, etc.
You need a Demat account too for a wide range of financial services.
For a seamless trading experience across segments, you need to have both of the accounts. A trading account, and a ‘Demat’ account along with a saving account are need for all kind of services.
Account Opening
The company offers a simple paperless account opening process where you can open an account in a few steps. As Groww does not offer an offline account opening procedure, you need to download Groww on your mobile or have to go through its website in order to get registered with the company.
Step-by-step Process –
- Download the ‘Groww’ app or go to the company’s website
- Click on any tabs ‘Login/Register’, ‘Get Started’, ‘Create Account for Free’, etc.
- You are now asked for your E-mail address or continue with your Google account
- An OTP is sent to your provided E-mail, and if you enter this OTP correctly, the account opening process takes place
- Provide some details like your profession, parent’s name, income, etc. for KYC (Know Your Customer) and click ‘Next’
- Make input your trading experience by selecting an option from a drop-down list and clicking ‘Next’
- On this page, you are asked to upload your signatures (you must remember your signature for future references)
- Now, for Aadhaar verification, enter your ‘Aadhaar’ number and an OTP is sent on mobile no. that is linked with your ‘Aadhaar card’ (if you do not have your mobile no. linked with your ‘Aadhaar card’, click on the tab ‘My mobile is not linked to my Aadhaar card’)
- Submit the OTP on the next page
- Read carefully ‘Demat’ account opening form and click ‘Sign Now’
- Now you will be redirected to the NSDL website, here enter your ‘Aadhaar card’ details and click the ‘Send OTP’ button
- Enter OTP to complete the sign-up process
- If everything goes right, you must be able to see the ‘Signed Successfully’ page
- Verification of your credentials takes up to 24 hours after that you can start investing
- Upon verification, you are given a ‘Demat’ account number, ID, and other details
Charges
Groww does not charge any amount for opening either a trading account or a ‘Demat’ account with it. Account opening and AMC details are such as –
| Discipline | Charges |
| Trading Account Opening | Free |
| Trading AMC | Rs. 0/- (per year) |
| Demat Account Opening | Free |
| Demat AMC | Rs. 0/- (per year) |
| Margin Money | 75% Margin |
| Offline to Online | No |
Brokerage Fees
As with all discount-service brokerages, Groww charges mostly flat rates. It charges Rs. 20/- for Equity Delivery, Equity Intraday, Equity F&O trades. The maximum brokerage levied by the company is Rs. 20/- per executed order.
Equity delivery is the most popular form of trading. And the company charges flat rates for this (and for all other segments also). This means you save a lot of amount on brokerage for your trading requirements. Charges for equity, ‘depository participant’, exchanges, and other fee/duties are such as –
Charges
| Segment | Description | Charges |
| Equity Delivery | Charged by the broker on buying orders when equity is delivered in Demat account | Rs. 20/- per trade
Or 0.05% (whichever is lower) |
| Equity Intraday | Charged by the broker if you buy/sell on the same day | Rs. 20/- per trade
Or 0.05% (whichever is lower) |
| Equity F&O | Charged by the broker for Futures & Options transaction lot | Rs. 20/- |
| DP (Buy Order) | Charged by DP for crediting stocks to Demat account | Rs. 0/- |
| DP (Sell Order) | Charged by DP for debiting stocks from Demat account | Rs. 8/- + Rs. 5.50/- (CDSL charges) per ISIN (company/ETF) per day per lot |
| Transaction Charges | Charged by exchange for trading | 0.00325% (NSE)
0.003% (BSE) (per order on buy/sell) |
| Clearing Charges | Charged for clearing a member by NSSCL/ICCL (clearing corporations of NSE/BSE respectively) | Rs. 0/- |
| Payment Gateway Charges | Charges for depositing money with Broker itself | Rs. 0/- |
| Stamp Duty | Charged as stamp duty by the state government for contract note | 0.018% Max (variable state-wise) |
| SEBI turnover charges | Charged by SEBI for regulating the markets | 0.00% |
| Securities Transaction Tax (STT) | Charged by the government when you transact on exchanges | 0.1% (equity delivery)
0.025% (equity intraday) |
| GST | Goods & Services Tax | 18% (wherever applicable) |
Despite offering one of the lowest prices for trading in the industry, Groww also provides a lot of discount offers time-to-time to attract new clients. These types of offers may prove a much needed-set of items for some individuals who are planning to start or resume their investment journey.
Trading Platforms
Groww was initially incorporated as Mutual Funds investment platform. It still is best known for mutual funds investments. In June 2020, the company ventured into the Equity segment. Along with it started some other services too like FDs, Digital Gold, US Stocks, etc.
It provides various online trading platforms for a seamless trading experience across segments. Among these, its ‘Groww’ app for mobile users is the most popular.
Read also: Best Trading App in India 2021
Although, there is no trading terminal available that you can install on your system. But its ‘Groww’ app is quite popular. In terms of responsiveness and simplicity, it is considered one of the best.
With this, you do trading like doing online shopping. You can expect a simple, straightforward interface. It gives you a seamless trading experience. And all this convenience you get at your fingertips.
Besides a simple interface, the Groww app also comes with a wide range of useful features and options. The key features of mobile and web-based trading platforms are such as –
Groww (Mobile App)
The salient features of the ‘Groww’ mobile app are such as –
- Fingertip unlock to trade anytime from anywhere
- Completely free to all its customers
-
It provides tons of features. Line and Candlestick charts, toggling between Stocks and Mutual Funds are notable ones. Apart from this you get category-wise Stocks monitoring (for example, higher returns/top companies, etc.). Free content/videos related to stocks and educating new investors are useful.
- Safe and secure trading platform
- Provides all background information related to companies
- Facilitates various payment options such as Net Banking, UPI, online Wallet, etc.
- A rich Dashboard to track the performance of your stocks
Groww (Web Version)
The prominent features of the web-based trading platform are such as –
- Online browser-based trading platform, means It can be accessed using any web browser of your computer or mobile phone
- Provides extensive monitoring and analytical capability for your Stocks
- Facilitates enriched online-trading experience
- A single platform to trade and place orders in Stocks, Mutual Funds, Digital Gold, IPOs, etc.
- Provides facility to trace all your transactions
- Provides a rich set of resources like blogs, e-books, journals, etc. to educate new investors
Pros
The following are the potential advantages with ‘Groww’ –
- Maximum flat Rs. 20/- brokerage
- Zero amount for Account opening and Demat AMC charges
- Paperless account opening process
- Online investment facility for Direct Mutual Funds, Digital Gold, IPOs, etc.
- E-books, Journals, Blogs to update and upgrade investors’ knowledge
- Daily news updates and alerts
- Quick resolution of queries
- User-friendly trading interface, compatible with multiple devices
Cons
The following may be the potential disadvantages if you choose ‘Groww’ –
- No research and advisory service is available
- No Call & Trade facility
- Online brokerage means almost no physical presence
- You cannot trade in Currency and Commodity segments
- No ‘Margin trading facility’ and no ‘Margin against trading’ facility
-
Advanced financial instruments are available. Other brokerages do not provide AMO, CO, BO, GTT, etc.
- Does not facilitate trading for NRI individuals
Conclusive Remarks
If you want to save money, choosing a discount brokerage will be beneficial. Traditional brokerages incur overhead expenses so cost more.
The amounts that are associated with peripheral services of a full-service brokerage. You choose a discount brokerage if you have experience and just want core services. It will save a lot of amount in long run.
If you are new to the stock market and want to invest in a high amount then you can choose a full-service brokerage. Expert financial advisories and recommendations may help you in your investment requirements. It may provide some safeguards against the volatility of the financial market.
Groww is the fastest-growing stockbroker in India. It provides a simple and straightforward feature for your investment needs. The app provided by the company for mobile users is pretty simple and easy to follow. Along with it has a ton of positive reviews online. Overall the ‘Groww’ is a good option to start your investment journey as a new user.
People Also Like:
nice