[Funding alert] Upstox turns unicorn! Raises $25M from Tiger Global as part of ongoing round: Source

Financial technology startup Upstox has crossed the billion-dollar valuation mark in its latest and ongoing fundraising round after raising $25 million from Tiger Global, a source familiar with the matter told YourStory.

Upstox did not immediately respond to YourStory's request for a comment or confirmation.

The startup is still in the process of completing the round, the source said. A second source acquainted with ongoing talks told YourStory that Tiger Global could invest $100 million in the startup, adding that the deal had not been finalised yet.

Entrackr first broke the news about Upstox's funding, saying that the online brokerage startup's valuation has surpassed Groww's, which was recently valued at $3 billion.

According to regulatory filings accessed by YourStory, Upstox has approved the allotment of 18,761 Series C preference shares at an issue price of Rs 98,608. The price per share has grown 28X from Upstox's last funding round.

Tiger Global owns around 31.1 percent in Upstox, having invested $25 million in 2019. Ratan Tata and Kalaari Capital are also investors in the startup.

Tiger Global is also an investor in Upstox's rival Groww. It invested close to $83 million in Groww's series D round.

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Founded in 2009 by Shrini Viswanath, Raghu Kumar, and Ravi Kumar, RKSV Securities-owned firm Upstox has been razor-focussed on strengthening its product offerings and technology stack over the last couple of years. It hopes to cater to the next 500 million Indians going online for all their financial services needs.

Along with allowing people to buy and sell stocks and other financial instruments on its platform, Upstox offers advisory services.

Online trading firms have seen a sharp spike in the number of retail investors on their platforms over the last two years as people took to investing their wealth via investments in instruments such as mutual funds, digital gold, bonds, and ETFs that typically offer higher returns than traditional banking instruments such as FDs and RDs.

Upstox's competitors include the likes of Zerodha, Paytm Money, Angel Broking, and various other stock trading platforms.