From stockbroking to fintech: Tracing Angel Broking’s transformation over the years

Established as a traditional broker in 1996, Angel Broking has transformed into a new-age fintech platform over the years. During its journey of two and a half decades, the innovation-driven company has remained consistent in providing its clients with the best services. Keeping up with the trends, the capital market player commenced its digital transformation journey in 2015 when it started to digitalise all its processes and build many digital properties. It was due to these consistent efforts that finally in 2019, the company introduced its flat fee plan under a completely digital business model.

The broking company vroomed past several important milestones in its long journey to stand tall today. Rebranded as Angel One, it has claimed its rightful place as a one-stop destination for all financial service needs catered from a technology-driven platform. Behind this new memento brand, Angel One has the same unflinching dedication and commitment to client servicing which was the hallmark of Angel Broking. It will remain clients’ trusted partner and is out there setting a new stage for the tech-savvy millennials and GenZ aspiring to venture into the financial marketplace through electronic networks, without leaving the comfort of their desk or while on the move.

Achievements over the years

The company had an established network of more than 180 branches across the country following a physical client acquisition and onboarding model and serving a client base of 0.8 million as of March 2015. Nurturing a vision of providing its clients with unparalleled experience, the company assimilated every advancement in information technology and artificial intelligence in developing and delivering its services. Today, it is a completely digital model, where 100 percent of direct clients are onboarded and serviced digitally.

Angel One is a fintech platform that services more than 5 million clients today, having a footprint in 98 percent of India’s locations. In Q1 FY22, Angel One’s market share in NSE Active client Base expanded to 8.8 percent, while its share in incremental NSE Active client Base stood at 11.8 percent. In the same period, the digital broker recorded 28 percent QoQ growth in its total client base, 21 percent QoQ growth in average daily turnover and 14 percent QoQ growth in the number of trades. Continuing the strong performance, the company’s average client funding book for Q1 FY22 stood at Rs 12,189 million. At Rs 4,745 million, its gross revenues grew by 13.3 percent QoQ in Q1 FY22, the highest in a quarter for the company.

Partners for millennials and GenZ

As the company focuses on its tech-led platforms, it is acquiring more millennials and GenZ, who want everything at the click of a button. The statistics speak for themselves, wherein the median age of clients acquired has consistently dropped from 34 years to as young as 29 years. For the company, it meant that their products like digital advisory through ARQ Prime, Angel BEE, zero brokerage on delivery trades and a nominal flat fee of Rs 20 for Intraday, Futures & Options, Currency and Commodity under iTrade Prime, SmartStore, Smart Buzz are striking the right chord with young India. In a nutshell, Angel One offers the benefits of a full-service bouquet at the price of a discount broker.

Furthermore, its investor education platform, Smart Money, is helping new investors cut their teeth in the sector. Angel One’s open-architecture-based platform has enabled the brand to keep up with its commitment of providing clients with the most user-friendly solutions. Hence, the integration of third-party products like Vested, smallcase, Sensibull and Streak and its in-house developed API, SmartAPI, have empowered its young and growing client base with a wider product offering for efficient investing and trading.

Angel One’s platforms are the outcome of bolstering the development and integration of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. For instance, ARQ Prime, which keys in up to a billion data points and uses advanced algorithms, quantitative analysis and Modern Portfolio Theory, enables personalised investment advice and helps users get better returns on investment. The platform is based on a model where performance is optimised to provide logical and realistic recommendations. The model’s efficiency has been proven, using scientific back-testing and is also validated from its track record since inception.