How FYERS is transforming the trading & investment ecosystem in India

Started in 2015 with an aim to transform the trading & investment ecosystem in India, FYERS is a stockbroking & investment startup. With a strong community of traders and investors, FYERS is currently powering more than 3,00,000 investors to trade seamlessly, across all major Indian exchanges including - NSE, BSE & MCX. In a span of 7  years. FYERS Direct for Zero Commission Mutual Funds investment, and API-based Algo trading.

At CIOL, we talked to Tejas Khoday, Co-founder and CEO, FYERS, about his innovative startup for trading & investment. Also, he speaks about the growth plans he has for FYERS.

Tell us about FYERS and your offerings. Tell us about the team.

FYERS is a technology-led stockbroking and investment company. We equally focus on creating investment opportunities for both new-age investors (DIY Investors) and full-time traders. We have a robust trading platform called FYERS Web, an easy-to-use mobile app for on-the-go investing, FYERS Direct for Zero Commission Mutual Funds investment, and API-based Algo trading.

Yashas Khoday (CTO), Shreyas Khoday (Director of Strategy), and I co-founded FYERS. Today, we are a strong 300+ member team across Product, Technology, Client Onboarding, and Support.

What are the problems that FYERS is trying to address through its offerings?

While working with other brokerage houses, we realized a massive gap between what the investing community wanted and what the brokerage houses offered. This gap was because most brokerages used platforms from the same technology service provider to facilitate trading. Hence, they couldn't make proactive improvements in the offerings & features. There is a lack of understanding of technology in the brokerage industry. We started FYERS to address the gap and bring much-needed technological change to the evolving capital markets.

Further, our School Of Stocks portal educates the masses on capital markets, trading & investments and helps them understand all the critical concepts from the ground up.

What are the business opportunities and challenges in the stock broking space?

Only 3% of India's population participates in equities, compared with the US (55%) and the UK (33%). So there is vast untapped potential and growth opportunity in the stock broking space as more and more people join the wagon in the years to come. However, the brokerage industry is headed towards saturation with no differential offerings and services. Today, even traditional players have entered the discount broking space to attract the young population and offer services to discount players, which could cause consolidation in the space. However, with innovation in products and services offerings, and operational efficiencies, we at FYERS are well-positioned to navigate these challenges and adapt to the evolving needs of the investors and industry.

Tell us about the growth of retail participation in the equity market?

Retail participation in stock markets has exploded in the last two years. With the onset of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown-induced WFH, millions, especially first-time investors, flocked to stock markets. Access to smartphones and affordable internet, ease of opening DEMAT Accounts, on-the-go trading via mobile apps, an influx of stock market and investment-related content by influencers, and the FOMO around it prompted this behavioral change. A whopping 30.5 Million Demat accounts were opened in FY 22, i.e 63% YoY growth. On average, 2 Million Accounts were added every month since 2020. Today, the total Demat account count stands at 96.5 Million in the country.

What are the FYERS' business plans, growth, hiring plans, partnerships, etc?

Since our inception in 2015, we have only grown from strength to strength. In the last 12 months, we have increased our headcount by 3X, and today we are a team of 300 members and growing. With a 14X growth in customer base over the last three years, we have a strong foothold and a superior growth profile in the online brokerage market. We are confident about doubling our customer base this year and continue to strengthen our technology and innovative offerings. We have also recently introduced NRI services to enable both, equity and F&O segments for them. We're also working on launching a Government Bonds platform soon.

What has 2021 changed for you? How are things now?

2020/21 was a redefining year for the brokerage industry as millions of new investors flocked to share markets. At FYERS, too, we witnessed a surge in Demat account opening and trading activity. Our customer base has grown 3x to 3,00,000 plus in the last 12 months. Today, we facilitate daily transactions worth 15,000 Cr. across exchanges (NSE, BSE, MCX) with 10-15% month-on-month growth.

Funding

We are a bootstrapped-profitable start-up and among a few players in the space to achieve this feat. Back in the day, there weren't many VCs betting on startups, especially those in the stock broking space. We pooled our savings to start FYERS. Due to limited resources (funds), we had no choice but to focus on positive cash flow and profitability from day one.

In hindsight, not raising the funding in the initial stages has helped us in many ways. For one, it has allowed us to be innovative, agile, and pivot swiftly as required. Secondly, instead of chasing growth and trying to create a giant start-up that makes heavy losses for many years, we chose to focus on steady growth without compromising profits to sustain without any funding or external financial support.