India’s largest Private sector lender HDFC Bank has invested an undisclosed amount in start-up small case, and bought a minority stake, as part of a Series B funding round raised $14 million. The existing investors like DSP Group, Sequoia Capital India, and Blume Ventures also participated in the Series B funding round.
The 5-year-old start-up operates in the capital markets space and works with businesses to help individuals invest in simple and transparent products called small cases. SmallCase Company was founded in 2015 by Vasanth Kamath, Rohan Gupta, and Anugrah Shrivastava and it is a mode portfolio of stocks and ETFs, that are created and managed by registered individuals and entities and accessible to retail investors. Smallcases have seen a sharp increase in investors and over the last six-month it transacted with its ecosystem approach. The Small cases company is estimated to have about 2 million users and has been transacted about Rs 5,000crore.
According to Nandkishore Purohit, Head – Digital Business, HDFC Securities this partnership with fintech firm Small Case has been a part of their core strategy of providing a differentiated experience to their customers across platforms and products. This investment also strengthens their partnership with SmallCase for various future plans, which include delivering best in class customer experience.Smallcase launched its gateway offering, which helps any application to provide stock, exchange-traded fund & smallcase transactions in a secure, compliant, and native manner. There are 11 apps and platforms, including Moneycontrol, SBI Mutual Fund, Nippon AMC, Kuvera, that integrated the smallcase gateway to power stock & ETF transactions.
According to Smita Bhagat, country head, government & institutional business, e-commerce & startups, HDFC Bank has been working closely with the start-up and fintech ecosystem in India in various ways over the past 5 years and this ecosystem, the bank believes, will play an important role in the economic progress of the country with a unique model, smallcase is well-positioned to create a niche in the capital markets in India and also help to extend the market.
The Smallcase‘s platform is connected with brokerage platforms including HDFC Securities to provide seamless transactions. Retail brokerage partners use the smallcase as an important product offering to help their clients build a diversified investment portfolio.
