Zerodha is now biggest broking firm in India

NEW DELHI: Discount broking firms emerged as investors’ favourite in 2018 as Zerodha outpaced other big brokerage names in terms of client numbers, data available with the National Stock Exchange showed.

Zerodha had 8.47 lakh active clients as of December 2018 end compared with ICICI Securities’ 8.45 lakh customers, HDFC Securities (6.74 lakh), Sharekhan (5.49 lakh), Axis Securities (4.17 lakh) and Angel Broking (4.16 lakh), according to the data.

Other big players including Kotak Securities, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Karvy Stock Broking and IILF Securities have 2.32 lakh-4.96 lakh clients.


In the last five years Zerodha’s annual growth rate in client addition has been in the range of 200-300 per cent, according to a report by The Times of India.

Some other brokerages having similar models, popularly called discount brokerages, are also growing their clients at a fast clip. These include Upstox (formerly RKSV), Samco and SAS Online. These brokerages too have seen their client base rise two-three folds in the last two years.

Discount brokers are those houses, which charge clients significantly lower fees compared to traditional ones, offer only online trading facility, but no research supports or financial advice.

Globally, because of the low-cost structure and the trade-and-scoot type of policy, discount brokers are very popular among traders, but not so among investors.

Zerodha is a technology-centric stock broking company founded in 2010 by brothers Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath. It is India’s first discount brokerage, widely credited for brining in a disruptive force in Indian broking industry.