Success Story of Upstox: From A Small Startup To Stock Trading Giant

The modern investment landscape in India has undergone a profound shift in the last few years, extending far beyond the traditional avenues like banks and insurance companies. Notably, the emergence of multiple stock and equities trading platforms has led to the diversification of investment choices, serving a range of clientele including individuals, corporations, stockbrokers, and retail investors. Making its name in this dynamic fintech landscape, Mumbai-based fintech pioneer Upstox is providing a plethora of cutting-edge investment choices to people. 

With its zero-brokerage model, the company, which is founded by Ravi Kumar and Raghu Kumar, offers traders and end-users affordable stock trading and securities brokerage services. Want to know the success story of Upstox? In this blog, we will discuss the journey of this company and understand how they managed to become one of the leading stock brokerage firms in the country. 

How Did It Begin? 

It all started with two brothers – Ravi Kumar and Raghu Kumar, who always had a keen interest in trading. Before Raghu even joined the venture, Ravi started trading penny stocks at the age of just 17. After gaining some experience, Ravi further explored the financial markets in 2004 while working at Thinkorswim, leading the forex market. 

While trading continuously, the duo learned about the space in detail and realized that the conventional way of trading on a desktop is fun, but algorithmic trading would benefit the trader much more. This motivated them to start doing algorithmic trading at a very early stage which eventually gave birth to RKSV Securities India Pvt Ltd (Upstox). 

Ravi and Raghu had a common goal to establish a retail brokerage firm in India and their dream turned into reality when RKSV successfully entered the retail broking segment in 2012 and opened for the retail public. Later in 2016, the company was rebranded itself as Upstox. 

Obstacles In The Road

One of the biggest challenges faced by Upstox was to handle increased user activity and potential issues with executing trades quickly. Before the founders could figure out some solution to this problem, they were hit by a major setback in April 2021 when hackers gained access to Upstox’s security systems and compromised the personal information of more than 25 lakh customers. Despite this shocking security breach, Upstox strengthened its systems right away and was able to regain their customer’s confidence. 

Learning from their past experience, Upstox then tightened their security protocols, and started observing  its activities in real time. As a safety precaution, the platform even executed an OTP-based secure password reset as well. Furthermore, in order to build a solid presence, Upstox prioritized its security procedures, guaranteeing the protection of its clients’ money and reaffirming its dedication to defending against online attacks.

Growth Trajectory Of Upstox

Within just two years of its inception in the market, Upstox reached the milestone of Rs 4000 crore+ trading turnover in 2014. The platform’s rapid rise to prominence and trust successfully led to raise funding from one of the biggest venture capital firms in India –  Kalaari Capital. 

Not only this, the company also gained significant investment from Ratan Tata, which further fueled its expansion in the fintech sector. Upstox experienced a tremendous growth in trade turnover in 2022, surpassing the noteworthy benchmark of $60,000 crore+. Upstox’s dominant position in the Indian financial market is reinforced by its impressive journey so far, which highlights the company’s growth trajectory and ongoing innovation.