'Ready To Back Crazy Ideas': Zerodha CEO Says Trading May Change Forever

Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath has issued an open invitation to fintech founders who are building products that could fundamentally change how people trade and invest.

In a post on X, Kamath said he would not be surprised if the traditional role of a broker changes dramatically in the future. He also made it clear that Zerodha and its investment arm Rainmatter are looking for ideas that go far beyond better dashboards or prettier interfaces.

"If you are building something radical, strange, or even a little crazy, we would love to speak to you," Kamath said.

'Trading Could Look Radically Different'

Kamath said trading and investing may appear very different today compared with the past. Platforms are slicker, information is more accessible and investors have access to a wider range of tools and products.

But the underlying process has barely changed. "Platforms look better. They are easier to use. There is more information, more data, more products, and far better tools," Kamath said. "But underneath all of that, you still place an order through a broker, which then goes to an exchange."

That, according to Kamath, could be the part that changes. 

He said Zerodha and Rainmatter are asking whether the broker-exchange relationship will continue to remain the dominant way people interact with financial markets. "AI is changing how software is built and used. Market structure and regulations are evolving," Kamath said. He also pointed to emerging areas such as tokenisation and prediction markets, along with what he described as "other weird experiments".

"90 per cent of it may be pure degeneracy, but you never know what might become mainstream," he said.

Could AI Make Brokers Just A 'Pipe'?

One of Kamath's biggest predictions is that the broker itself could become less visible to the investor. "I wouldn't be surprised if, in the future, a broker becomes little more than a pipe between the customer and the exchange," he said.

Instead, investors could interact with markets through a personalised interface built using AI. "The customer may interact with the markets through a completely personal, AI-built interface rather than a broker's app," Kamath said.

For investors, that could mean a major shift. The app they currently use to place trades may no longer be the most important part of the investing experience.

Kamath acknowledged that nobody knows exactly how this transition will play out. "We don't know what the future of trading and investing will look like. But we think it may look radically different," he said.

The Zerodha founder specified that the focus is on founders attempting to rethink the basic way people participate in financial markets. "We are looking for founders fundamentally rethinking how people might trade and invest in the future... If you are building something radical, strange, or even a little crazy, we would love to speak to you," he wrote on X.

'AI Interface May Not Make Brokers Less Relevant'

Reacting to Kamath's post, Gaurav Udani, Founder of Thincredblu Securities, told NDTV that he agrees with Kamath's broader direction but added that the changing interface does not necessarily mean brokers will become less important.

"Kamath's right about the direction, but the timeline is the part people will get wrong," Udani said. According to him, the interface itself is likely to become commoditised.

"Nobody's loyal to an app, they're loyal to execution quality, uptime, and trust with their capital," he said. However, Udani believes the infrastructure sitting behind the interface could become even more important. "Where I'd push back is the idea that this makes brokers less relevant," he said. "It makes the invisible infrastructure, order routing, risk systems, regulatory compliance, and capital adequacy, more valuable, not less, because that's exactly what a personal AI interface can't replicate or self-certify with a regulator."

Udani also highlighted another potential risk. "The real risk nobody's pricing in yet: AI-built interfaces making retail traders faster and more confident isn't automatically good for someone without systematic discipline... A slicker interface just means faster, more emotional trades... Better tools don't fix bad processes; they amplify whatever process you already have, good or bad."