HDFC Bank invests undisclosed sum in investment startup 'smallcase'

HDFC Bank has invested an undisclosed amount in investment startup smallcase. Existing investors DSP Group, Sequoia Capital India and Blume Ventures also participated in the recently concluded $14 million Series B funding round. 'smallcases' are model portfolios of stocks and ETFs founded by Vasanth Kamath, Rohan Gupta and Anugrah Shrivastava in 2015. They are created and managed by registered individuals and entities and are accessible to retail investors.

Nandkishore Purohit, Head - Digital Business, HDFC Securities said that partnering with firms like smallcase has always been part of their core strategy. "Partnering with fintech firms like smallcase has always been a part of our core strategy of providing a differentiated experience to our customers across platforms and products. This investment by HDFC Bank further strengthens our partnership with smallcase for various future initiatives to deliver best-in-class customer experiences," said Purohit.

The platform is integrated with some of the country's biggest brokers including Zerodha, Kotak Securities and HDFC Securities. smallcase's gateway offering that helps any app to provide stock, ETF and smallcase transactions in a secure manner was launched earlier this year. Around 11 apps and platforms including SBI Mutual Fund, and Nippon AMC have integrated smallcase gateway to power stock and ETF transactions.

CEO Vasant Kamath has estimated that there are about 2 million users and as much as Rs 50,000 crore has been transacted in smallcases.

There had been a spurt of investment and wealth management apps during the coronavirus lockdown. Falling stocks and online adoption led to more retail investors transacting on such platforms.

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