NextBillion Technology Pvt Ltd, which operates online investment platform Groww, has raised $30 million (Rs 220) in a Series C funding round.
This exercise has been led by YC Continuity, which backs Y Combinator alumni companies. Other participants in the round include existing investors Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, and Propel Ventures, Bengaluru-based Groww said in a statement.
It also comes almost a year after Groww raised $21.4 million (Rs 152 crore) in its Series B round. That fundraise was led by Silicon Valley-based Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Y Combinator.
Groww was founded in 2017 by Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh and Ishan Bansal, all former Flipkart employees.
The company says its platform currently offers stock broking and direct mutual fund investments and claims to have more than eight million registered users.
It will use the capital it has raised to strengthen its technological infrastructure, as well as expand its product suite and hire talent for teams including engineering, product, and growth.
A part of the funding will also be used to further ‘Ab India Karega Invest’, its countrywide financial education initiative.
“We believe Groww is building the largest retail brokerage in India,” YC Continuity partner Anu Hariharan said.
Apart from mutual funds and stocks, users of the platform can also invest in US stocks and gold. The startup says it will soon expand to other products that it says will help investors diversify across multiple asset classes.
Its Series B fundraise last year came after the company raised $6.2 million (Rs 44 crore) in its Series A round, which was led by Sequoia, as reported by VCCircle in January 2019.
In July 2018, Groww raised $1.6 million (Rs 11 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by Insignia Ventures Partners, Lightbridge Partners and Kairos, along with CureFit founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, its existing backers.
Prior to this, the company raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Bansal and Nagori, and Y Combinator.
