Kredent InfoEdge Private Limited (KIPL), an entity that operates the Indian brands StockEdge and Elearnmarkets, has acquired growth capital of INR 10 Crore (appr. $1.35 million) from Kotak Securities Ltd in order to expand their existing product capabilities while growing their user base.
This is reportedly the very first funding transaction that has been undertaken by Kotak Securities Limited (KSL). It comes as part of its Start-Up Investment and Engagement Program.
The firm stated that it intends to use the proceeds to scale its e-learning and analytics platforms and will also update its data and technology.
At present, Kredent serves more than 2 million users and is currently looking to expand its user base to around 10 million. The company is focused on establishing an ecosystem that’s able to provide investors an end-to-end journey — from learning (via elearnmarkets), research and data analytics (offered via StockEdge), collaboration (via StockEdge social), to transaction.
As first reported by Your Story, The firm intends to introduce its social investing platform and a transaction engine that has the ability to host several different intermediaries.
Elearnmarkets serves as a financial education platform for Indian consumers with more than one million learners registered. There are over 200 market professionals currently hosting finance courses in various languages. As previously reported, StockEdge is a stock analytics solution with more than a million users.
Vivek Bajaj, Co-founder and Director, StockEdge and Elearnmarkets stated:
“We are excited to have Kotak Securities onboard as one of our investors. We share a common philosophy of empowering retail investors through thorough knowledge. As financial markets in India expand to real Bharat, we are perfectly positioned to cater to the overall needs of the ‘New Indian Investor.”
Co-founded by Vivek Bajaj, Vineet Patawari, and Vinay Pagaria, the firm previously secured funding from investors such as Ramesh Damani, IndiaMart founder Shri Dinesh Agarwal, among several others. Indian VC firm Samyakth Capital also took part in the round.
StockEdge and Elearnmarkets confirmed that they’re planning to conduct a Series A round in the coming months. EY served as the exclusive financial advisor and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) was the exclusive legal advisor to KIPL.
Vinay Pagaria, co-founder at Indian Fintech firm StockEdge, a company that helps India’s residents, particularly the younger generations, with learning more about how to responsibly and effectively invest their money in stocks and bonds, confirmed last year that most or about 80% of the firm’s services are free to use.
Pagaria had noted:
“We created the StockEdge app to help retail investors make the best out of financial markets including both equity markets and mutual funds.”
He had revealed in 2020 that the StockEdge app is now also available on the web (at web.stockedge.com), in addition to the app. The Fintech firm provides offline research tools which it claims are meant for “serious money makers.”
Pagaria is also the co-founder of Elearnmarkets.com (ELM), which is an online portal that complements StockEdge. It aims to spread financial market knowledge amongst students, investors and traders.