Zerodha, India’s leading technology-driven brokerage firm, today announced the launch of India’s first kid’s book on finance – The Rupee Tales and India’s first direct mutual fund and equity platform – Coin. Zerodha recently took a momentous step to nurture young minds with Rupee Tales – a set of 5 story books which attempts to familiarise children above 7 years to basic financial concepts. Zerodha has used storytelling with vibrant illustrations as a medium to convey these concepts.

Speaking more on the development, Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO said, “Zerodha is committed to improving financial literacy in India. Our educational initiatives, such as Varsity and Trading Q&A are a testimony to this. We are taking this commitment further with Rupee Tales. It is our earnest attempt to creatively inculcate basic financial awareness among children. The concepts covered in Rupee Tales pertain to financial inclusion; pivotal to the cashless and paperless economy India is striving for. A large part of the ‘financial inclusion for all’ dream is dependent on how the younger generation adapts to it.” Each book deals with a specific topic, peppered with lively characters, and vibrant illustrations. The concepts covered include Savings, Banking & Inflation, Taxes, Insurance, and Stock Markets.

Karthik Rangappa, the author of Rupee Tales & VP- Educational Services, Zerodha, added, “The idea to write Rupee Tales came to me when my 7-year-old daughter kept asking me where I work and what I do. I realised it was not easy to explain what the stock market is or, for that matter, basic finance to Meera. During a casual chat at work, we realised there was no material available to familiarise kids to basic finance. Being India’s leading financial services firm, we somehow felt it was our responsibility to change this, and lo and behold, Rupee Tales was born”. The stories were conceptualised in-house at Zerodha. The Rupee Tales box set can be ordered from rupeetales.com, is priced at INR 470/- only.

On business growth

Zerodha has grown tremendously in the past one year, adding clients at a rate of 100 % (FY 16-17). Zerodha currently has a user base of over 3.25 lakh across India. InPunjab, Zerodha has offices across Amritsar, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana. It has grown at a rate of 179 % for FY 16-17 with a client base of over 3000, with touchpoint of 1branch and 2 partner offices. In Chandigarh, Zerodha has over 1500 clients and has grown at a rate of 187% for FY 16-17.

Nithin further added, “The investor participation in India is still very shallow; around 5 million investors who have traded once a year and not more than 1 million Indians who have traded once a quarter; less than 0.01% of India’s population. We have been able to make inroads, though. To attract our first 90,000 clients, it took us five years, but with the launch of our zero-brokerage offering on equity investments and continuously improving technology offerings we have been able to quickly increase our client base to over 325,000 in the last 12 months

On Coin

Zerodha Coin is a platform that let the customer buy mutual funds online, completely commission-free, directly from asset management companies. The mutual fund bought through Coin will be in demat form, with a convenience of one portfolio across equity, mutual fund, currency. Zerodha will charge a flat subscription fee of Rs 50 per month, irrespective of the number or value of mutual fund transactions. One can start, stop or modify SIPs anytime they want and the first Rs 25,000/- worth of investments would be free.

“For an informed investor, buying mutual funds directly is the best option. SIP of Rs 5000 monthly invested for 25 years in direct vs distributor can potentially save Rs 28 lakh as commissions. Buying direct mutual fund in demat also gives the convenience of a single portfolio view,” Nithin added.

To manage the growing needs of its clients, Zerodha currently has 22 branches, 70 partner offices and 5 support/call & trade offices in India.

About Zerodha

Zerodha, the pioneer of the discount broking model in India currently offers advanced trading platforms at no cost to investors. Recently launched, Coin is a platform that let the customer buy mutual funds online, completely commission-free, directly from asset management companies. It has built up a loyal client base of over 3,25,000+ clients and contributes to over 5% of the turnover across various exchanges. www.zerodha.com

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