‘Don’t want to fly in private jet, own a yacht’: Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath

‘We were lucky that we had scaled up before the lockdown,’ says Nithin Kamath.

After building the country’s largest and most-profitable pure-play brokerage, Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of Zerodha has to stave off pressure from investors who want a piece of the company. In an interview to Samie Modak, he explains why he doesn’t want to take PE money and why Zerodha is not being aggressive when it comes to acquiring new clients. Edited excerpts:

Did the broking industry anticipate last year’s big boom?

When the lockdown first hit, in our internal meetings we discussed the need to spend the year as a monk and that we need to be frugal. Then the tap just opened up. I don’t think anyone could have predicted what happened last year. Everyone caught off guard.

We were lucky that we had scaled up before the lockdown. Other folks, who had to scale up, couldn’t do it during the lockdown as procuring servers, getting lease lines up took extremely long. Eventually, everyone figured a way out. There were not too many bad moments wherein a broker was down for multiple days. Some large brokers were down for a day or two but it potentially could have been a lot worse. Last year, the industry added 50 million demat accounts. How much market share did Zerodha grab? Yes. These are non-unique accounts. We added about three million plus, which could be 10-12 per cent of the (unique) market share.

Isn’t that quite less ?

As an ideology we don’t offer any cashback or free stuff. The business of trading is a serious business and cashback isn’t something that should lure people into trading or investing. If we had to let go of our account opening fees or offered some cashback, we potentially could have grabbed a much bigger market share. But the crowd, which is not serious, brings in a lot of burden in terms of compliance and support. And at the end of the day may not even add anything meaningful in terms of revenues.

Comments

Nearly 10 mn Afghan children in desperate need of humanitarian aid: UNICEF

There are nearly 10 million children in Afghanistan “in desperate need of humanitarian aid”, said UNICEF Afghanistan Representative, adding these children are deprived of right to a healthy childhood There are nearly 10 million children in Afghanistan “in desperate need of humanitarian aid”, said UNICEF Afghanistan Representative, Herve Ludovic De Lys, adding that these children are deprived of their right to a healthy and protected childhood. “Those least responsible for this crisis, are paying the highest price — including the children killed and injured in a series of atrocities in Kabul since last Thursday”, the senior UN Children’s Fund official told correspondents. “Again, today, I heard of more unsettling reports – of unaccompanied children across the country…more reports of grave violations, including children being recruited by armed groups…All this in a year in which more than 550 children have been killed, and more than 1400 injured.” He said that against a...

PSU bank employees go on two-day strike; services hit at many places

Employees of public sector banks went on two-day strike against the move to privatise public sector banks impacting normal banking operation across the country Employees of public sector banks (PSBs) on Thursday went on two-day strike against the move to privatise public sector banks impacting normal banking operation across the country. Many branches across different parts of the country were shut as the United Forum of Bank Union (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions including All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC), All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) had given two day strike call. As a result, services such as deposits and withdrawal at branches, cheque clearance and loan approvals might be affected due to the strike. But ATMs are expected to function as usual. Public sector lenders, including State Bank of India, had informed customers that services in their branches might be affected due to ...

'When rape is inevitable, enjoy it...': Congress MLA in Karnataka Assembly

Senior Karnataka Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar made a sexist and unsavoury comment on rape in the state Assembly Senior Karnataka Congress leader and former Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Thursday made a sexist and unsavoury comment on rape in the state Assembly. Speaking in the Assembly, Kumar said, “There is a saying that when rape is inevitable, lie down and enjoy it. That is exactly the position in which you are.” The senior Congress MLA’s remark was made when MLAs began to demand time from Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri to discuss farmers’ issues in the Assembly. When the Speaker asked how the Session would be conducted if the time was allotted to everyone. “Whatever you decide I will say yes. What I am thinking is that let us enjoy the situation. I can’t control or regulate the system, my concern is about the business of the house, it has also to be covered,” the Speaker told the members. To this, the Congress MLA Ramesh Kumar mad...

Budget 2018-19

Search This Blog