Trading & Options · Profile from Trading and Options Research Companion
Zerodha
The Bengaluru discount broker that Nithin Kamath bootstrapped in 2010 ("We kick-started operations on the 15th of August, 2010" — Zerodha's About page) with a flat ₹20 per executed order, then made equity delivery free in 2015 and became India's largest broker by NSE active clients in early 2019 (~8.47 lakh active clients vs ICICI Securities' ~8.44 lakh, NSE data as reported by YourStory, Jan 2019). It rode India's 2020–21 retail boom and the index-options boom on the National Stock Exchange of India to become one of the most profitable brokers anywhere relative to its size — reported net profit ~₹5,496 crore (~$650m) in FY24 on revenue of ~₹9,372–9,993 crore (filings as reported; figures differ by source) — and then watched those earnings fall when SEBI tightened F&O rules in 2024–25. For a trading book Zerodha is the broker that publishes loss data: its founders have said publicly that very few of their own active traders beat a bank fixed deposit, while the firm earned most of its revenue from those same traders' futures and options. It is the Indian counterpart to Robinhood — but without payment for order flow, without paid user acquisition, and with education ("Varsity") rather than gamification as its distribution story.
At a glance
- Founded
- Operations began 15 Aug 2010 (Zerodha About page); founded and bootstrapped by Nithin Kamath (founder and CEO), with Nikhil Kamath (co-founder)
- Headquarters
- Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
- Type / ownership
- Private discount broker (Zerodha Broking Ltd and group companies); founder-owned, never raised outside venture capital (company statements; verify ownership split)
- Products
- Kite (trading platform, launched 2015), Console (back office), Coin (direct mutual funds), Kite Connect (APIs), Varsity (education, from 2014), Zerodha Capital (NBFC; loans against securities), Zerodha Fund House (AMC with smallcase, launched Oct 2023, reported), margin trading facility (from Jan 2025, reported)
- Pricing
- ₹0 brokerage on equity delivery (since 2015); flat ₹20 or 0.03% (whichever lower) per executed intraday and F&O order (company pricing page — verify current); exchange, SEBI and stamp charges and Securities Transaction Tax (STT) passed through
- Scale (dated)
- "Over 1.8+ crore clients" and "over 15% of all Indian retail trading volumes" (About page, undated, read Nov 2026); ~65 lakh customers traded in the year to Aug 2022 (Kamath, "12 years of Zerodha", Aug 2022); NSE active clients 6.48m vs Groww 6.63m at end-Sep 2023, when Groww overtook it (NSE data as reported, Oct 2023); ~68 lakh active clients across Kite and Coin (Inc42, Jul 2026, reported)
- Financials (reported, not audited by this KB)
- FY23 net profit ~₹2,908 crore; FY24 revenue ~₹9,372 crore (YourStory, Dec 2024) or ~₹9,993 crore (later filings coverage), net profit ~₹5,493–5,496 crore; Kamath's own Sep 2024 post gave FY24 as >₹8,370 crore revenue and >₹4,700 crore profit; FY25 revenue from operations ~₹8,847 crore (−11.5% vs the higher FY24 figure of ~₹9,993 crore; ~−6% vs ~₹9,372 crore), net profit ~₹4,237 crore (−22.9%) (Entrackr and others from Registrar filings, 2025)
- Regulators
- SEBI (stockbroker, depository participant, AMC); NSE, BSE and MCX (exchange membership); RBI (Zerodha Capital as NBFC)
- Currency note
- ₹1 lakh = ₹100,000; ₹1 crore = ₹10m; ₹1 lakh crore = ₹1 trillion. USD conversions here use an illustrative ₹85 = US$1 (not any year's average)
- Signature moves (incl. failures and enforcement)
- Founding as a flat-fee discount broker (2010); Varsity and the no-advertising model (2014–); zero-brokerage delivery and Kite (2015); becoming India's largest broker and the 2020–21 boom (2019–21); publishing its traders' losses (2022); losing the active-client lead to Groww and launching Zerodha Fund House (2023); SEBI's true-to-label circular and F&O measures (2024); the FY25–26 revenue fall, diversification and the algo-platform settlement with SEBI (2025–26)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2010
Founding as a Flat Fee Discount Broker
Founding / fee model
2014
Varsity and the No Advertising Model
Distribution / education; decision not to spend on paid user acquisition
2015
Zero Brokerage Delivery and Kite
Fee change / technology bet
2019
Largest Broker and the Retail Boom
Market-share milestone / scaling through a retail boom
2022
Publishing Its Traders Losses
Disclosure / customer-protection stance
2023
Groww Overtakes and Zerodha Fund House
Competitive loss / diversification into asset management
2024
True to Label and SEBI F and O Measures
Response to a regulatory shock / pricing decision
2025
Revenue Fall Diversification and SEBI Settlement
Restructuring of revenue / strategy pivot; minor regulatory settlement