‘I still feel our real competition is...’: Nithin Kamath says it’s not Mukesh Ambani or BlackRock

India’s capital markets are “largely limited to the top 10 crore Indians,” says Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath, who believes Mukesh Ambani’s Jio BlackRock may be uniquely positioned to expand that reach, if anyone can.

Reacting to the venture’s foray into stockbroking, Kamath wrote on X: “The biggest issue for the Indian markets is a lack of breadth in participation. If anyone can expand the markets beyond the top 10 crore Indians, it’s probably Jio with all its distribution might.”

Jio BlackRock — a joint venture between Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial Services and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager — secured broking and advisory licenses earlier this year. 

The firm is positioning itself as a low-cost, digital-first disruptor, leveraging Jio’s massive reach and BlackRock’s tech stack, including the $21-trillion Aladdin risk platform.

Kamath, however, signaled that Zerodha would not be drawn into a race for growth at any cost. “We are not chasing vanity metrics. The idea is to stay profitable and... stick to the principles and philosophies that have gotten us this far.”

At the heart of that philosophy is customer restraint. 

“This means not pushing customers to trade and ensuring there are no unnecessary notifications, dark patterns, etc. We understand that in the long term, the odds of success are better if customers trade less.”

Kamath also distanced Zerodha from bait-and-switch tactics: “We’re not interested in acquiring customers using one plan and changing the pricing later.”

While Ambani’s move echoes his past telecom disruption, Kamath believes market dominance in broking won’t come just from deep pockets. 

“I still feel our real competition is going to be more from first-generation founders... This is not a business where having deep pockets means you have a large moat,” he said. 

“But yeah, I might be wrong.”