Groww Creditserv's loan book grows to Rs 965 crore by June

Stockbroking unicorn Groww's non-banking financial company (NBFC) arm Groww Creditserv Technologies (GCS) has seen its proprietary loan book expand to around Rs 965 crore as of June, up from Rs 731 crore in March, according to rating firm ICRA. The NBFC, which has been assigned an 'A/AI' (stable) rating by the rating firm, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Billionbrains Garage Ventures, the parent entity of Groww. Established in January 2021, GCS received its NBFC license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in December 2022. It primarily focuses on offering personal loans and consumer durable loans for household essentials such as televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines. Customers can apply for these loans at around 100 stores. GCS commenced full-scale operations in April 2023, starting with unsecured loans, and expanded its consumer durable lending business to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in December. In July 2024, GCS completed a pass-through certificate transaction, selling loan assets to investors who now receive payments from the underlying loans. The company also plans to issue non-convertible debentures (NCDs) shortly to support its growth.

On October 1, ET reported that Groww's core broking business posted a net profit of Rs 297 crore for 2023-24, a fourfold increase from Rs 73 crore in the previous financial year, according to ICRA. In September 2023, Groww surpassed Zerodha as the largest broking platform in India, with 6.63 million active investors compared to Zerodha's 6.48 million. By May 2024, Groww's active client base crossed 10 million, making it the first discount broker in India to achieve this milestone. Earlier this year, Groww relocated its domicile to India from the US, following a trend among Indian startups to reverse-flip and benefit from India's maturing startup ecosystem.