Tracking the fast rise of India’s Robinhood

The Top Up is Tech in Asia’s free newsletter that breaks down the biggest stories and trends in fintech. [Read from your browser]( The Top Up 💵 Welcome to The Top Up! Delivered every Wednesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in fintech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Melissa Goh Fintech Journalist Hello {NAME} From Dalgona coffee, crocheting and home yoga to work from home and a reliance on food delivery services, to say that the pandemic has changed our lifestyles would be an understatement. Almost two years on and still in the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, though, how many of those habits have you shed? Confession: I made a couple of cups of Dalgona coffee in May last year and did enjoy them, but I've been too lazy to make any ever since. Food delivery, though? Still a resounding yes. For millions of millennials and Gen Zs worldwide, who have been cooped up at home and bored, discount brokers have been a godsend, enabling affordable trading for the everyday investor. The ascent of US brokerage platform Robinhood in the past year has been talked to death, but here in Asia - specifically India - one local platform has welcomed a flood of young and savvy investors, who were lured in by its dirt-cheap fees and intuitive platform. In this week’s big story, Arpit dives into Zerodha, an 11-year old Bengaluru-based fintech unicorn whose name has become synonymous with stock trading among many young Indians, who drove its precipitous growth in the past year. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Today, Zerodha has 7.3 million users, with nearly 5 million active traders - or 20% of the active user base in the Indian brokerage industry - many of whom are first-time traders taking a stab at investing. Will the rally last though? The CEO was surprisingly candid during our interview. Read on to find out more. -- Melissa THE BIG STORY  1️⃣ [Trial by fire awaits Zerodha, India’s top stock trading app]( Image credit: Timmy Loen The US$2 billion firm has gained from booming markets and a surge in first-time investors. But while Zerodha’s CEO is bullish about the long term, he fears a bubble may pop soon. TRENDING NEWS Check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of Asia’s fintech scene [here](.  1️⃣ [Temasek-backed ShopBack to buy Hoolah]( Photo credit: ShopBack Following the acquisition, ShopBack will own Hoolah, but the latter’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) brand, services, and operations will operate as before. Terms of the deal were undisclosed, though the buyout involved a mix of cash and stock. Why it matters: The merger comes a little over a month after [Hoolah’s restructuring effort]( in September, which we documented in detail. Rising competition in the BNPL space, market changes, as well as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic pushed Hoolah to downsize its teams in Singapore, Malaysia, and in Hong Kong. The newly merged entity has the potential to become a powerhouse of lead generation. Already, ShopBack offers a basket of cashback and deals, serving over 8,000 merchants and 30 million shoppers across Asia Pacific. A fresh installment payment feature would be the icing on the cake. Several BNPL partnerships this year like this one suggest that we might be on the cusp of “BNPL 2.0” - as Atome CEO David Chen aptly describes it - where we’ll increasingly see the feature enveloped into a broader ecosystem of services, rather then being a standalone feature.  2️⃣ [Grab, TripleA to enable crypto trading via GrabPay wallet]( Crypto payments provider TripleA has partnered with super app Grab to allow Singapore-based users of TransCrypt - one of its brands - to buy cryptocurrencies through the GrabPay e-wallet. Why it matters: This is not GrabPay’s first partnership in the crypto space. A [partnership with Coinhako]( inked in September lets users of the Singapore-based crypto exchange buy digital assets instantly using GrabPay. It’s a sign of cyptocurrency’s popularity in Singapore - a survey finds that [16% of Singaporeans]( own these digital tokens - the sixth highest percentage of ownership in the world. Payment companies are warming up to crypto firms and are increasingly adding crypto functionalities to their e-wallets as digital assets gain popularity among users. This month, payments giant Mastercard said that it would allow partners on its network to [buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies]( via a digital wallet. Visa also offers a credit card that lets users earn bitcoin on their purchases.  3️⃣ [Highlights from Paytm’s $2.4b IPO presentation]( Photo credit: Quartz India Paytm’s business grew by 62% in the first quarter of the financial year ended March 2022, according to the company’s latest papers submitted to India’s market regulator. The fintech major also addressed questions about why it [scrapped its pre-initial public offering round]( as well as why it won’t be seeking a non-banking financial license from the central bank. Why it matters: The listing of Paytm’s parent, One97 Communications, which is expected to raise US$2.4 billion at a valuation of around US$20 billion, could well be India’s largest stock market debut to date. Its plans focus on India in the near term. The company has said it will use the to strengthen the Paytm ecosystem by acquiring and retaining merchants as well as consumers. It also said it has no plans to make further investments in Japan - where it operates a joint venture with Yahoo Japan and Softbank - or other overseas markets. We highlighted [8 things that caught our eye]( in Paytm’s draft red herring prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.  4️⃣ [Singapore fintech firm Validus acquires expense management platform]( Photo credit: Validus Validus, a platform that facilitates lending to small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), has acquired KlearCard’s business payments and expense management tech platform for an undisclosed sum. The move will accelerate Validus’ efforts to become a credit-led neobank that serves SMEs. KlearCard allows businesses to issue virtual corporate cards with features to control spending, as well as automated accounting processes. Its clients span multinational corporations across telecommunications, payments, and professional services industries. Why it matters: We’ve tracked Validus’ [recovery from Covid-induced setback]( in this earlier story. Like Funding Societies, Validus has gradually [changed tack]( to move away from being a peer-to-peer lender, taking on more capital from institutional investors rather than retail investors in recent years.The move appears to be paying off. While loan volumes fell last year, Validus “bounced back” between June and July due to the short tenure of its loans. None of the large corporations whose SME vendors and suppliers it financed defaulted on their loans. STARTUP WATCH  1️⃣ Zolve - [Tiger Global joins neobank’s $40m series A round]( Just 10 months old, [Zolve]( hit a valuation of US$210 million following its latest fundraise. Based in India and the US, Zolve provides US-bound immigrants - working professionals and students - with access to bank accounts, credit cards, and debit cards, without the need for social security numbers or credit histories in the US. It plans to become a full-stack financial services provider, with instant remittances, loans, and insurance products in its pipeline.  2️⃣ Fi - [Google Pay founders’ neobank rakes in $50m in series B money]( India-based fintech firm [Fi]( formerly known as epiFi, provides neobanking solutions targeting young millennial workers. It allows users to open zero-balance savings accounts, Visa-powered debit cards with no forex charges, and set up fixed deposits. That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preference center. In the meantime, if you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to get in touch with Terence, our editor-in-chief, at terence@techinasia.com. See you next week! P.S. 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