‘Zerodha has not given up its aspiration to acquire banking licence’: CEO Nithin Kamath

In an interaction with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Nithin Kamath said Zerodha is not giving up on its aspiration to acquire a banking licence.

The CEO reaffirmed the company’s stance on staying private, citing the company’s business model and operational style as a mismatch with the demands of public markets.

Nithin Kamath rules out the chances of listing in IPO

“We continue to believe there's no reason to IPO. Being listed on exchanges is tough for a company like us,” he said.

The Zerodha CEO is in Monaco for the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 awards, where he is one of the 43 global finalists. 

Nithin Kamath was named India’s Entrepreneur of the Year in March.

On the near-term business outlook, he said the fintech firm expects a 10–20% decline in its broking business, which remains directly tied to market activity.

Despite this, Nithin Kamath’s company is aiming for ₹10,000 crore in revenue by the end of FY26. Meanwhile, the CEO also ruled out any changes to brokerage rates.

Also read: 'We have companies posing as tech': Anupam Mittal says India has no real tech firm (startuppedia.in)

Zerodha boss posts about actual trading activity not matching up

In a recent post on X, CEO Nithin Kamath said that while KYC records show more investors coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the actual trading activity doesn't quite match up. 

The entrepreneur commented that if you look at the addresses provided by users during their KYC process, it appears many traders are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. However, most of them are from metros, against what recent data findings are showing.

Kamth said, "If one looks at trading activity by looking at the addresses of users as per their KYC, you'll see a lot of users from Tier 2 and 3 towns. However, if you look at user activity by the IP addresses they use to log in, then the bulk of the activity comes from the top 20 cities. This is because most people don't update their address once they move to a different city."

Also read: London-based AI-powered startup caught with human developers from India writing code based on customer requests, posing as AI (startuppedia.in)