Zerodha's Nithin Kamath on JioBlackRock's stockbroking license: Deep pockets won't help
If anyone can expand the markets beyond the… — Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) July 2, 2025
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JioBlackRock getting a stockbroking license from the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi ), is not a reason for Zerodha Founder and CEO Nithin Kamath to lose sleep. For him, the real competition will come from first-generation founders who are running, breathing, and always thinking about broking and not from a business with deep pockets."... I still feel our real competition is going to be more from first-generation founders who are running, breathing, and always thinking about broking. I somehow don't feel it is really going to be from incumbents. This is not a business where having deep pockets means you have a large moat," Kamath tweeted on Wednesday on his official X handle.Notwithstanding this, he sees JioBlackRock's entry to the broking business as a positive as the Indian markets lack breadth in terms of investor participation. Zerodha's own customer base is 10 crore Indian out of the over 1.4 billion population."Many people asked me about JioBlackRock getting a stockbroking license. Firstly, this is great news. The biggest issue for the Indian markets is a lack of breadth in participation. We're largely limited to the top 10 crore Indians. If anyone can expand the markets beyond the top 10 crore Indians, it's probably Jio with all its distribution might. As for how many new Indian investors have the money to invest in the market, I don't know," the tweet said.Kamath claimed that Zerodha is not chasing numbers and his idea is to stay profitable while sticking to the principles and philosophies that brought the company so far."How do we think about broking? We are not chasing vanity metrics. The idea is to stay profitable and, more importantly, ensure that we stick to the principles and philosophies that have gotten us this far. At the heart of our philosophy is to always do the right thing for customers," the tweet said."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; most of our product decisions are based on this. We're not interested in acquiring customers using one plan and changing the pricing later.And more...," it said further.He said that his discount brokerage was in no hurry and was up for the long haul.Also Read: Jio BlackRock receives Sebi approval to start brokerage business; JFSL stock up 5% "So yeah, we are in no hurry. We are in it for the long haul and are always working to ensure we have the best product offerings that help our customers grow with us. I don't know if you can say the same about many other financial services businesses in the industry, who are constantly looking to grow at any cost," Kamath said.The Zerodha co-founder finally added that he could be wrong in his assessment. "But yeah, I might be wrong," he said. Jio BlackRock Broking Pvt Ltd. received regulatory approval from Sebi to commence operations as a brokerage firm in India on June 27. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jio BlackRock Investment Advisers.
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