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In November this year, Rain Platforms Inc will launch TradingLeagues, a platform that gamifies stock trading via free and paid games. The brainchild of Upstox and Rain Platforms co-founder Raghu Kumar, and fellow Rain co-founder Harsh Agarwal, the idea for TradingLeagues was inspired by a stock trading competition in school where students were asked to put together a mock portfolio of stocks.

Raghu’s portfolio consisting of penny stocks was the best-performing one at the end of the trading day—and won him the sought-after prize.

Most young adults don’t get this exposure in schools. Most adults don’t interact with the stock market until much later in their lives, and even that usually happens mainly through mutual funds.

As co-founder of Upstox, and then Rain Platforms Inc, Raghu realised that people are almost fearful of stock markets—daunted by the system’s jargon, theories, and technicalities.

“It’s hard to get most people to participate in the financial markets, mostly because people either don’t understand the markets or they don’t have a brokerage account. Therefore, most people end up opting for passive investing products,” Raghu tells YS.

To bridge the distance between financial markets and people, and induct them into the markets in a safer, low-stakes environment, Raghu and Harsh came up with TradingLeagues.

The platform offers several stock market trading games, some free, and some with low-priced buy-ins, much like fantasy sports. Users make trading decisions as per the rules and formats of the games, and stand a chance to win part of the total game pool if they come out on the top.

Some of the games involve selecting between one of the two stock options presented, putting together a portfolio of 4-6 stocks to compete against peers, and predicting stock prices.

Price movements of stocks and indexes in the games mirror live stock markets, Raghu says.

“We’re not going to provide users too many tools, at least initially, for them to make super informed decisions because we want people to develop their own instincts and use those to trade,” he adds.

Monetising the platform

Rain Platforms says it plans to charge 20% of the winnings as platform fees, which will be its main revenue source.

In the first 12 months of operation, it hopes to hit nearly two million downloads.

Users don’t need any capital or a brokerage account to start playing games on TradingLeagues, Raghu says. While players will initially be allowed to trade in the US, Indian and crypto markets, the startup later hopes to add foreign exchange trading, among other financial instruments.

Students between the ages of 18 and 23 are the company’s target market, although anyone—from a novice to an experienced trader—can play.

“We come from the school of thought that says the best way to learn about the markets is by actually participating and getting involved..at some point you actually have to get your feet wet and get started. TradingLeagues can help you do that in a low-risk setup,” Raghu says.

After the launch in November, the platform plans to add more games as it grows.

Similar platforms that operate like fantasy games and offer cash prizes include Stocktry, MoneyBhai, BYSOS, and Ztocks.