Dhan Bets Beyond Brokerage

by · Inc42

SUMMARY

  • Dhan is expanding beyond trading to build a full-stack investing platform. However, as its product suite grows, so do questions around complexity, coherence, and long-term trust.
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Having assembled a capital markets stack, spanning APIs, AI-led tools, content, education and algorithmic investing, over the past five years, Raise Financial Services, the parent entity of investment tech platform Dhan, no longer wants to limit itself to stock trading. 

The idea is straightforward: if retail investors are becoming increasingly experimental and data-driven, then the platform should evolve from a transaction layer to a decision layer.

But this move is not random. Late last year, the startup raised $120 Mn in its Series B funding round from Hornbill Capital, MUFG, BEENEXT and others, catapulting its valuation to $1.2 Bn and allowing its entry into the country’s coveted unicorn club. 

The inflow of funds gave it room to expand beyond brokerage, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of the algo-trading platform Stratzy, which adds depth to its product stack. 

Clearly, the ambition is to build a financial operating system for the next generation of Indian investors. But there is an inherent tension at the heart of Raise’s next chapter — challenges will grow in tandem with its stack. 

Going ahead, Dhan will have to bundle its stack in a way that remains intuitive, cohesive, and easy to trust. So, can it turn breadth into its strength or crumble at scale? Let’s try to answer this in this edition of The Outline.

A Push Beyond Brokerage

Raise’s $120 Mn Series B round last year effectively underwrote its transition from a brokerage to a broader fintech platform. The idea behind the raise was simple: India’s retail investor base is growing, and users now want more than just basic trading. 

Indian investors today are experimenting with APIs and increasingly seeking data-driven decisions. Dhan was built to capture this cohort many years ago. Its early differentiation lay in speed and product design.

In 2022, the company made a conscious decision to launch an API-first trading platform, DhanHQ, which has now emerged as a preferred infrastructure layer for serious traders.

Even in terms of user base, Dhan’s trajectory reflects a focused rather than mass market approach. As of last year, it had around 10.3 Lakh active users, compared to Groww’s 1.29 Cr and Zerodha’s 68.9 Lakh users. 

The platform’s revenue from operations rose 136% YoY to ₹877 Cr in FY25, while profit zoomed 159% YoY to ₹408 Cr, as per the company’s regulatory filings. These numbers are a far cry from what Groww and Zerodha reported during the year. While Groww posted a revenue of ₹3,902 Cr in FY25, Zerodha raked in a top line of ₹8,847 Cr.      

Despite a wide revenue chasm, Raise’s revenue uptick shows that its core brokerage business is scaling and giving it the financial cushion to back its expanding product ambitions. 

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