By 2016, we had realized that the biggest challenge for the Indian markets was shallow participation. At that time, we had less than one crore active unique investors. There was only so much that we could do on our own to expand the markets. We understood that we had to partner with and enable others in order to help expand the market. We decided to open up what we had built at Zerodha through APIs for startups to build on. Since we were also building expertise in dealing with the ever-changing regulatory landscape, startups could focus on building good products while we handled all the complexities that lay underneath.

The first platform to build on top of Kite APIs was smallcase, and the Rainmatter journey started from there. Fast-forward to today, and we have partnered with amazing startups across fintech that are building world-class products to help investors, traders, advisors, and distributors. There were a couple of realizations along the way. It became apparent that just helping people do better with their money wasn’t enough, and so began the health journey of Rainmatter where we started supporting founders helping Indians make healthier choices. We also understood the need for skilled storytellers talking about finance and entrepreneurship and started supporting startups in the space.

The biggest problem to be solved in India is ensuring that wealth creation happens locally and inclusively. This is the only way to ensure that wealth creation is captured by a lot of Indians. For this to happen, we need Indian capital backing Indian founders. We are doing our bit by reinvesting ₹1000 crores from the profits generated by Zerodha to support Indian entrepreneurs building in India across fintech, health, and storytelling.