India’s fintech landscape has changed rapidly over the past decade. Online investing, once limited to a few brokers and desktop terminals, has evolved into a mobile-first experience where millions of users trade, invest, and manage portfolios daily. Platforms like Dhan, Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angel One built the foundation for this boom, making stock market participation more accessible than ever.
Dhan
Founded in 2021 by Pravin Jadhav, Alok Kumar Pandey, and Jay Prakash Gupta, Dhan operates under the parent company Raise Financial Services. In just four years, it has achieved a rare milestone for an Indian fintech startup reaching unicorn status in October 2025 with a valuation of over $1.2 billion after raising $120 million in its Series B round.
The idea for Dhan came from a simple observation. After the pandemic, India witnessed a sharp rise in retail investors, but most trading apps fell into two extremes, either too basic for serious users or too complicated for new entrants. The founders saw a gap in the market for a high-performance, intuitive platform that could serve both.
Pravin Jadhav, the driving force behind Dhan, had already helped shape India’s investing landscape as the former CEO of Paytm Money, where he played a key role in building one of the country’s largest retail investment platforms. With a background in product and operations, and experience as an angel investor and entrepreneur, Jadhav brought clarity on what retail investors truly needed: simplicity, speed, and transparency.
Along with Jay Prakash Gupta and Alok Kumar Pandey, both veterans in financial services and trading infrastructure, Jadhav built Dhan with a clear mission to create a platform “for traders, by traders.”
It was designed to bridge the gap between professional-grade tools and everyday accessibility, ensuring that Indian investors could access global-quality trading infrastructure from their smartphones.
Building the Platform
Dhan started as an online trading and investing platform offering equities, F&O, ETFs, mutual funds, and IPOs. What made it different was its focus on performance, insight, and integration. The platform’s deep integration with TradingView brought institutional-level charting and analytics to retail users. Its Option Trader product catered specifically to India’s growing community of derivatives traders, while DhanHQ APIs opened up algorithmic trading to advanced users.
Over time, Dhan expanded into a broader financial ecosystem under Raise Financial Services. It launched ScanX, a market research and analytics tool; Upsurge, a financial learning platform; and Filter Coffee, a content hub focused on Gen Z and millennial investors.
In 2025, Dhan introduced Fuzz (askfuzz.ai), an AI-powered platform for investors and finance professionals that delivers contextual, data-backed insights for the Indian market.
Growth and Financial Performance
In October 2025, Raise Financial Services closed a $120 million Series B round led by Hornbill Capital and Japan’s MUFG, with participation from BEENEXT, Ramesh Damani, DSP Family Office, JM Financial Family Office, and Aashish P. Sommaiyaa of White Oak Capital. The funding marked a tenfold increase in valuation from its 2022 Series A round.
Financially, the company reported ₹900 crore in revenue in FY24, up from ₹380 crore in FY23, and turned profitable with a net profit of ₹155 crore, reversing a ₹22 crore loss the previous year. In the first half of FY25, Dhan posted ₹453 crore in revenue and a ₹214 crore profit after tax.
Competing in a Crowded Market
India’s discount broking and trading sector is one of the most competitive fintech spaces in the country. Players like Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angel One dominate the market, each serving millions of users. Yet Dhan has managed to carve its own identity by focusing on technology depth and reliability rather than pricing wars or aggressive marketing.
The platform’s infrastructure emphasizes near real-time execution, seamless integrations, AI-driven insights, and advanced API capabilities. This approach appeals to both active traders and long-term investors who value control and transparency.
The Road Ahead
With unicorn status secured, Dhan is now focused on deepening its technology and expanding its reach. The company plans to strengthen its AI-driven investing tools through Fuzz.ai, enhance Upsurge to scale financial education, and continue refining its core trading infrastructure.
The broader goal is to build a full-fledged financial ecosystem that connects investing, learning, analytics, and AI under one brand. This reflects a larger trend in fintech globally — moving from single-use products to integrated platforms that guide users through their entire financial journey.
