Angel One’s metamorphosis from traditional broker to digital disruptor

Tech startups have redrawn India’s stockbroking landscape over the last couple of years. While Zerodha, with its zero-brokerage strategy, instigated this tectonic shift, others such as Upstox and Groww followed similar paths to scale. 

Venture capital-funded startups like Groww and Upstox had two major advantages that played out over the last couple of years. For one, their external funding allowed them to chase market share through incentives and promotional campaigns. Beyond this, their digital platforms saw rapid adoption among a section of the population with disposable income but nothing much to do in a world still grappling with the curfews imposed by Covid.

These factors helped them leapfrog old school brokers, which depended on physical branches and agent networks for clients. One listed broking firm, however, is going toe-to-toe with India’s new generation of broking platforms.

Mumbai-based Angel Broking, a two decades-old firm, rebranded to Angel One in August 2021. The following month, it announced to the stock exchanges that it would be known by its new brand name.

“To resonate better with GenZ and millennials, the fintech platform Angel Broking rebranded itself as Angel One,” the company announced in an August 2021 press release.