‘Jio with all its distribution might’: Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath speaks on Jio BlackRock broking biz

Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath remains unfazed by the entry of the Jio-BlackRock joint venture into the broking space, stating that deep pockets alone don’t guarantee a strong competitive moat in this business.

Kamath believes his brokerage’s real competition, instead, is going to be more from first-generation founders, who he believes are “running, breathing, and always thinking about broking.” He does not see  big competition from incumbents.

In a post on X, Kamath said Jio-BlackRock JV entry into broking business is in fact a good news for industry, saying: “If anyone can expand the markets beyond the top 10 crore Indians, it’s probably Jio with all its distribution might. As for how many new Indian investors have the money to invest in the market, I don’t know.”

Kamath said a lack of breadth in participation is the biggest issue for the Indian markets and that the industry is largely limited to the top 10 crore Indians.

The co-founder and CEO at Zerodha said the brokerage’s idea is to stay profitable and, more importantly, ensure that it sticks to the principles and philosophies that have gotten the company this far. 

“At the heart of our philosophy is to always do the right thing for customers — this means not pushing customers to trade and ensuring there are no unnecessary notifications, dark patterns, etc,” Kamath said.

Kamath said the odds of success are better if customers trade less in the long term. He said Zerodha is not interested in acquiring customers using one plan and changing the pricing later. 

“So yeah, we are in no hurry. We are in it for the long haul and are always working to ensure we have the best product offerings that help our customers grow with us. I don’t know if you can say the same about many other financial services businesses in the industry, who are constantly looking to grow at any cost,” Kamath said.