ET Awards for Corporate Excellence 2025: Groww chief Lalit Keshre named entrepreneur of the year

Lalit Keshre, 44, is cofounder of Groww, a company that’s successfully disrupted stock broking and wealth management. In just nine years, the Bengaluru-based startup has become the country’s largest mutual fund distribution and stock trading platform, overtaking legacy bank-backed brokerages and profitable fintechs that once dominated the space.

Keshre’s focus on product, technology and overall consumer experience has helped Groww build a digital-first wealth platform catering to millennials and Gen Z investors, earning him the Entrepreneur of the Year award. The jury was particularly impressed by Keshre’s ability to scale rapidly while keeping the company in the black, a rare combination in India’s startup landscape.

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The jury also highlighted Groww’s emergence as a dominant force in the mutual fund and systematic investment plan market, a reflection of its deep retail connect and the trust millions of users place in the platform. The innovative pricing and business models for these products, while relying on equities as the primary revenue driver, also drew praise. “I am humbled by this recognition from ET. This award truly belongs to the entire Groww team,” Keshre said. “It is a privilege to build alongside colleagues who are obsessed with making investing simple, transparent and accessible for millions of Indians.” The IIT, Bombay graduate, who hails from a village in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, was a member of the jury that picked the winners but recused himself from the discussions as he was a nominee in the category. “If you are managing money for millions of people, and that too millions and billions of dollars, you should be accountable to the public,” Keshre had told ET in an interview before the company’s recent IPO. “That’s how it is the world over. Your customers become your shareholders, which means higher accountability, higher responsibility, more trust in the system.”

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Groww’s IPO was oversubscribed 17 times, and the stock jumped 28% on debut. Investor enthusiasm pushed the company past Rs 1 lakh crore in market capitalisation on November 18, barely a week after listing. The share debut delivered multifold returns to Groww’s early investors. Y Combinator earned a 29x return on its investment, Peak XV Partners saw a 52-fold gain, and Ribbit Capital recorded returns of around 43 times. Groww closed FY25 with revenues of Rs 4,056 crore and a net profit of Rs 1,819 crore.

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Except for a temporary setback in FY24, when it paid $160 million in taxes during its reverse flip from the US to India, Groww has consistently remained profitable in the past few years. Having begun life as a direct mutual fund platform, Groww entered stock broking in 2019. Within four years, in September 2023, it overtook Zerodha, already a well-established player, as the largest stockbroker with 6.6 million active clients.

Today, the company offers a full-stack wealth management suite spanning broking, mutual funds and advisory, and serves more than 12 million users. It strengthened this stack through the acquisition of Prosusbacked Fisdom and entered asset management by acquiring Indiabulls Mutual Fund. Recently, it also secured an Online Bond Platform Provider (OBPP) licence to offer listed corporate bonds to retail investors.