Chhotastock, the first small-ticket, low-risk equity basket of India, has announced that it has successfully raised a substantial pre-Seed round of funding this week from a clutch of angel investors across India and the UAE. The round was led by SC Innovations Funds and strategic investors from the UAE.
Set up in January 2022, Chhotastock is targeting young, non-professional investors in tier 2 and 3 cities across the country. The young want alternatives to the passive-return investments such as fixed deposits favoured by the previous generation. Available in select vernacular languages, the Chhotastock app is perfect for those seeking active strategies for higher returns, the startup said in a press statement.
How it works
Chhotastock has built a transaction engine catering to B2B2C and D2C segments under the brand and a PaaS-based platform that's scalable for the next 5-7 years and through gamification of investment experience.
Having built and taken all of this to market with a pre-Seed raise, the startup allows people to invest as little as Rs 100 in stocks.
Users can invest in the country’s top 40 most actively traded stocks, sector exchange traded funds, pre-IPO shares, and IPO with a minimum investment of Rs 100 at the touch of a button.
Based on the principle of inclusivity, Chhotastock will give small investors access to the upcoming LIC IPO in March, 2022.
Underserved small investors in country
“Our aim is to create wealth for the 290 million underserved small investors in the country,” states Mithun Tantri, founder and CEO of Chhotastock.
“We are a product-led company with a goal to help increase the penetration of equity investments by 3X in India, making it affordable for all.” Chhotastock is already live on ‘Siply - India ka Savings’ and will soon be available with at least 5 more partners.
“When we conceptualized Chhotastock sometime in late 2021, we always knew about the market opportunity and the fact that with our collective experience we had a definite edge in building something that solves the issues plaguing penetration in Indian Equity markets,” said Mithun.
The company is confident of quickly raising more growth capital in the coming future to support its expansion plans. “We are bullish about deploying our resources to realize our vision of attracting new investors to equity markets.”
"At SCIF, we look for early-stage investment ideas that have the potential to rapidly scale up, backed by fantastic tech-driven founders, who not only understand technology deeply but also have the ability to deeply evaluate business strategies and can navigate myriad regulatory challenges which are prevalent in the FinTech domain. In Mithun and in ChhotaStock I found such a combination of the right amount of talent, drive, and business acumen," said SC Innovations Funds.
