MUMBAI: India’s second largest brokerage firm Upstox is aiming to become a dominant force in the global financial industry with plans to onboard as many as 300 million users over the next five years, the company’s top management told ETMarkets.com in their first-ever joint interview.
The blueprint for achieving this challenging feat: spreading financial awareness through its partnership with Indian Premier League, embedding the code of ethics of its backer Ratan Tata and more crucially, obsessing over customers, a la Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“We are just going to stick to being customer-obsessed. This is what Jeff Bezos said: you can either be customer-obsessed or you can be competition-obsessed, and we want to be clearly focused on the customer. Hopefully we can keep accelerating growth and that is one of the goals here,” said Kavitha Subramanian, a co-founder at the company.
Bezos is known for his business ideal in making Amazon the most customer-centric company in the world. Upstox believes working with those same ideal should be enough for the company to continue on its scorching growth path. “I do believe customers are voting with their feet. They do see our value proposition and it is something they enjoy,” she said.
Upstox’s growth has been stellar. Despite being in the industry for close to a decade, it is only in the past two years that it really took off. In 2020, the company added 15 times more users than what it had in 2018. Currently, it’s adding 200,000-300,000 users every month.
Infosys, HDFC, 7 other stocks that may help you make money in a few weeks
Money-making ideas
A record surge in Covid-19 infections is spooking Dalal Street once again amid a global selloff as investors await the onset of the corporate earnings back home. Anticipating strong stock-specific action, analysts have made a few recommendations that they believe can help investors bag handsome returns in the coming weeks.
Alkem Labs | BUY | Target Price: Rs 3,150
The stock surged past its recent high of Rs 2,799 on the back of above average volumes last week. This augurs well for the upmove to continue. Technical indicators too are giving healthy signals as Alkem Labs trades above its 20-day and 50-day SMA and intermediate momentum indicators like the 14-week RSI are in a rising mode and not overbought. The analyst expects the stock to gradually move higher and, therefore, recommends a buy between Rs 2,800 and Rs 2,860. Stop loss should be kept at Rs 2,700 for target of Rs 3,150.
(Analyst: Subash Gangadharan, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst, HDFC Securities)
Indraprastha Gas (IGL) | BUY | Target Price: Rs 610
The stock broke out of its recent trading range on the back of above average volumes on Friday. This indicates significant accumulation and augurs well for the upmove to continue. Technical indicators too are giving healthy signals as IGL stock trades above its 20-day and 50-day SMA and daily momentum indicators like the 14-day RSI are in a rising mode and not overbought. The analyst expects the stock to gradually move higher and, therefore, recommends traders to buy IGL in the Rs 530-545 range for a target of Rs 610. He recommends keeping a stop loss at Rs 510.
(Analyst: Subash Gangadharan, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst, HDFC Securities)
HDFC | BUY | Target Price: Rs 2,690
After a strong uptrend rally, the stock witnessed a short term correction last week. It corrected from its all-time high of Rs 2,896 to Rs 2,413. However, the medium term texture of the stock is still in the positive zone. Post correction, HDFC took support near an important retracement level and is currently near 20-day SMA with modest double bottom formation. The daily and weekly structure suggests that a reversal wave will continue in the near term if it manages to trade above Rs 2,420, which should be the stop loss. The analyst has set a target price of Rs 2,690 on HDFC.
(Analyst: Shrikant Chouhan, EVP – Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities)
Infosys | BUY | Target Price: Rs 1,540
The stock has maintained consistent uptrend from the last couple of weeks, rallying from Rs 1,350 to 1,450 within the period. That uptrend wave was price dominating and supported with decent volume activity. On the daily and weekly charts, Infosys has formed a robust breakout continuation pattern which suggests that the uptrend momentum is likely to persist in the near future. For swing traders, Rs 1,390 should be the key level to watch out for and stop loss for the trade. The analyst expects a rally towards Rs 1,540.
(Analyst: Shrikant Chouhan, EVP – Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities)
The path towards realising its goal of onboarding millions of customers going ahead is by reaching out to them. Upstox recently entered a sponsorship pact with IPL, one of India’s most popular annual events, and hopes the platform of cricket will help it reach out to millions of potential users.
“First of all, we think the potential for growth is immense in India. We are at 4% equity participation, and we are just scratching the surface,” said co-founder and chief executive officer Ravi Kumar.
The company hopes to enlighten a largely under-penetrated market that managing one’s investment portfolio need not necessarily be ‘boring’.
Much like its rival Zerodha, Upstox has benefitted from the advent of online, zero-discount brokerages in the country, which has brought millions of new customers to the domestic stock market over the past two years.
During 2020-21, India added over 40 million new dematerialised accounts, as retail investors flocked to the stock market to deploy their excess savings and make money in a rampant bull market. Nifty50 and Sensex nearly doubled in last 12 months amid a raging pandemic.
“Investors are coming to an understanding the whole concept that one needs to be partially invested in the equity market. Again, millennials are the ones driving a big part of this,” Subramanian said.
Upstox is cognisant of the fact that it does not want to blindly chase growth and success with a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality. “At no point do we tell our consumers ‘Hey! Why don’t you go and trade a little more?’ We do not provide tips,” Subramanian said.
For the co-founders having Ratan Tata as an investor also implied embedding his ethics in the company. “How do we codify that set of ethics. That is a conversation we are having with him where he is helping us walk through that process. We feel extremely privileged frankly to be hearing from the horse’s mouth,” she said.
