"6 Years To Get 60,000 Customers": Zerodha Founder Nithin Kamath On Growth Before Digitisation

It is no secret that digitisation has increased tremendous business opportunities in our country. Before this, starting a business was a laborious process which also included a lot of wastage and paperwork. Recently, Zerodha Founder and Chief Executive Officer Nithin Kamath took to X, formerly Twitter, sharing how it took him six years to get the first 60,000 customers and the number increased to one crore in the next six years owing to the digital infrastructure.

"It took us 6 years to get to our first 60k customers, each of whom had to sign and courier 40+ pages of forms and wait for days. We got to 1 crore customers in the next 6, entirely eliminating paper in the process. This was enabled by eKYC, digital signatures (eSign), & digital documents (Digilocker)," he said in a post.

Listing the advantages of digitisation, he said that it increases productivity and savings along with wastage reduction for companies. Mr Kamath added, "Hundreds of millions of pages that didn't have to be printed and transported and valuable customer time that didn't have to be wasted. Most of our time in the first six years was spent figuring out how to send forms back and forth collecting docs."

"We had 900 on the team in late 2017 with 5lk customers. Today, we have 1.3 crore customers with 1100 on the team. And this while our customer support quality has improved significantly. We have done many other things right, but doing away with the physical process has helped exponentially," he continued on the microblogging site.

Mr Kamath also noted that the robust digital infrastructure has also reduced customer onboarding risk significantly on his platform. "Physical forms, docs, and signatures with multiple intermediaries vs. the customer directly with their digital identity and signature + mandatory online In person verification (IPV)," he continued on the microblogging site. 

Several people agreed with Mr Kamath. Author Ankur Warikoo replied to his post and said, "I saw the change for myself. From the first demat in physical form, to opening one for my dad in a matter of minutes. It felt surreal. Almost magic. The difference was stark. Growth!"

"Match made in heaven - digital infra & zerodha," added a person.

"Digital transformation has truly revolutionized the way businesses operate in India. Kudos to @zerodhaonline for adapting and thriving in this new era. It's amazing how technology can simplify processes and benefit both businesses and customers," commented a user.

Another person said, "And don't forget the trees that have been saved when the millions of pages were not printed!"