“Zerodha made $1Bn+ in revenue and $500Mn+ in profits with just 30 engineers,” says Dilip Kumar who leads investments at Rainmatter

On November 21, 2025, Dilip Kumar (investment lead at Zerodha’s Rainmatter) claimed that the leading online stock trading firm caters to 16 million customers through just approximately 30 engineers.

Kumar posted this on X (formerly Twitter) while responding to another post that explained how Cursor, an artificial intelligence platform, scaled to $29 billion without any full-time product managers.

Read More: “Typing ‘I love you’ never feels the same as saying it" - Meet Hyderabad founder who launches a voice-first app for real human connections

WHAT DID DILIP KUMAR SAY

Dilip Kumar, the head of health investments at Zerodha's Rainmatter and an endurance athlete, stated that Zerodha clocked more than $1 billion in revenues and more than $500 million in profits without any full-time product manager.

“Meanwhile Zerodha made $1B+ in revenues & $500m+ in profits without any full time PM & ~30 engineers managing 16million customers,”he wrote.

“Engineering efficiency is a moat not a feature,”he added.

Read More: Done with juggling between Ola, Uber, Rapido for cheap rides, entrepreneurs from BLR built an app to compare & book rides in one place

WHAT DID NETIZENS SAY

One X user praised Zerodha's engineering and wrote, “Zerodha didn’t win with flashy features or a 500-person tech team — they won by building tight, lean, boringly reliable engineering. No full-time PMs, ~30 engineers, and still handling 16 million customers without breaking a sweat. That’s not luck… that’s architecture.”

“Agree with the general point but my guess is that there is a need for PMs when you are looking to think and build level 2 and above behaviours or solve for them. I feel some products and markets do require a lot of this thought and orchestration,” another wrote.

“Please prove by sharing its org chart,” a skeptical social media user stated.

Read More: Gurugram Startup Eliminates Stress From People’s Life By Running Errands On Their Behalf – Clocks Rs 4.8 Cr In FY25

ZERODHA'S LEAN TEAM GAME

The country's leading online stock broker and trading firm, Zerodha, has famously maintained a lean team.

In 2024, Kailash Nadh (CTO at Zerodha), had told Moneycontrol that they have hired only five people in the tech team in the last four years.

“It is a group of people who hang out with each other, who have the right philosophies, who gel well with each other,” he had stated. 

Read More: Kerala Man Who Went To The USA To Become An Investment Banker Now Runs An AI-Trading Firm That Lets You Buy Real Estate In Fractions