Ratan Tata-backed brokerage unicorn Upstox breached the Rs 1,000 crore revenue mark in FY 2022-23. The company co-founded by Kavitha Subramanian, Ravi Kumar and Shrini Viswanath is the closest rival of billionaire Nithin Kamath-led Zerodha. In 2021, Upstox became India’s 40th billion-dollar startup as its valuation surpassed rivals Zerodha and Groww.
One of the country’s fastest growing investment platforms, Upstox was founded by Ravi Kumar and Shrini Viswanath in 2009 as RKSV Securities. The vision behind the company was to create a platform that offers retail traders and investors in India opportunities to invest. Subramanian joined Upstox as co-founder in 2016. She is in-charge of growth, strategy, finance, and customer experience at the $3.4 billion valuation company.
Subramanian is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay from where she pursued BTech and then MTech in Electronics and Telecom. After gaining her engineering degrees from IIT, she joined the corporate world as a Business Analyst with McKinsey & Company. After a 5-year corporate stint, Subramanian pursued an MBA degree in Finance from the famous Wharton School in the US. Before joining Upstox, she worked for private equity and investment firms Actis and LeapFrog Investments.
In order to grow popularity and widen its base, Upstox entered into an official partnership with leading cricket tournament Indian Premier League in 2021 with a 3-year deal worth a reported Rs 145 crore. Kavitha Subramanian had revealed Upstox’s strategy, which was to “pique the interest of the millions of young people who want to manage their finances better”. Upstox is backed by VCs like Tiger Global, Kalaari Capital, and angel investors like legendary industrialist Ratan Tata and famous cricketer Shikhar Dhawan.
