Live in India, based in Singapore MarketWolf has plans to introduce stock trading in more markets to novice investors. The platform announced today that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Singaporean venture capital firm Jungle Ventures and Mumbai-based Dream Capital. Returning investors 9Unicorns, iSeed, Crescent and Riverwalk also participated.
This brings the total amount raised from MarketWolf to $17.4 million since its inception in 2017 (it was launched in India in 2020). The new funding will be used to build a product suite and hire the product, marketing and engineering teams.
MarketWolf aims to make trading accessible to starters with low minimum investment amounts and a risk management system, as well as modules to practice and learn about investing. They can invest in options, futures, ETFs and stocks, starting at $5. Most users are in the 18 to 35 age group.
MarketWolf’s risk management features include setting mandatory risk and reward levels, listing liquid instruments only, preventing the sale of options to avoid unlimited risk, and the practice and learning module.
MarketWolf, founded by Vishesh Dingra and Thomas Joseph, says it has seen more than 1.5 million app downloads in India in the past 18 months and the number of trading accounts and active retail customers has grown 10x from a year earlier. It was listed among the top 15 brokers in terms of transactions in 2021 by India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Before co-founding MarketWolf, Dingra worked at Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital, where he developed quantitative models and strategies for algorithmic trading in capital markets.
He told londonbusinessblog.com that he and Joseph wanted to launch an investment app because “we saw that existing products focused on long-term investing and that short-term trading was overlooked. Thomas and I have worked at trading desks in Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, etc. and understood that there could be an easier, more engaging and risk-managed way of trading available to people around the world.”
The startup is one of a number of investment apps in Southeast Asia that have raised – and continue to raise – money. Just in the past month, asset management platform PINA, Indonesian crypo-trading app Pintu and Vietnam’s Anfin all raised venture capital, also for new investors.
Dingra said MarketWolf stands out from other investment apps with its gamified interface (many of its users come from mobile gaming communities) and a trading-first approach.
“Most brokers in the market are products that require investment first, while MarketWolf is a product that trades first and creates its own new market segment – people who can trade well in all market conditions, bullish, bearish, flat or volatile,” he said. .
In a prepared statement, Arpit Beri, head of Jungle Ventures, said: “Retail participation in the stock market in India remains appallingly low at ~3-5% and we believe MarketWolf has the right product, as well as the right team and the right expertise to break through this market.”