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StockGro, a Bengaluru-based social investment startup, has raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round of funding. The round was led by Roots Ventures and Velo Partners. The company will use the funding to grow its user base, hire tech talent, and build new features.

StockGro was founded in January 2020 by Ajay Lakhotia, former venture capitalist, with an aim to help people learn and participate in stock markets.

With a gamified virtual interface, the startup enables users to discover trading strategies, compete and interact with some of the country’s best minds. With a user base of more than one million, StockGro has over 80 percent month-on-month retention.

Ajay Lakhotia, Founder, StockGro said, 

“Our culture, our education system teaches us how to save money but no one teaches us how to invest money. At StockGro, we are on a mission to make millennials investment ready. With over one million active users on the platform within nine months of launch, StockGro has become the primary social investment platform for millennials. Global investors aligned to our vision have come on board to support us in democratising investments for the next generation.”

Starting investing journeys

The platform claims to allow ordinary individuals to initiate their investment journey without taking any risk and get rewarded for building the best investment portfolios. Best performing traders and investors win award money gaining followers and become popular socialising their investment strategies and thesis.

StockGro now has leading fund managers, F&O traders, and algo traders driving their social groups, helping users learn various trading strategies and test their thesis on StockGro platform.

Japan Vyas, Roots Ventures, said, 

“StockGro is gamifying stock investing and making it more social. These are compelling elements in one platform, providing educational interface to aspiring investors and traders, tremendous exchange of ideas and information amongst participants, and on the whole democratising investing and trading. We look forward to working with Ajay and the team.”

Andrew Reader, of Velo Partners, added, “Encouraging education and engagement with the younger generation around investing in the stock market is essential. With less than 10 percent of millennials actively investing in stock markets, StockGro is standing at the junction of growing the TAM of active investors. Ajay brings the right experience, knowledge, network, and passion to unlock this multibillion-dollar potential market.”

Earlier in December 2020, StockGro raised around $1 million in an angel round of funding from Unicorn founders, including Kunal Shah of Cred, Vivekananda Hallekere of Bounce, Rahul Garg of Moglix, Ramakant Sharma of Livspace, prominent fund managers, and family offices, including Creed Capital, Luminaire Capital, and Mark V Capital. Falcon Edge Partners is among the prominent investors in StockGro.

In the last nine months, StockGro has become the primary platform across the schools and colleges to learn trading and investment.

Recently, StockGro partnered with NIRC, the Northern India Regional Council of ICAI, to launch exclusive StockGro leagues for CA students and professionals. The partnership was aimed at helping over six lakh students and one lakh professionals learn the nuances of stock market.