Kotak Cherry: Number One App for Retail Investors!. Kotak Cherry wants to be the “the go-to” Super App to the retail investor, according to the CEO-designate Subramanian
Kotak Investment Advisors Limited, which is a subsidiary that is a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has been launched for retail investors who have been focusing upon Kotak Cherry, a Do it Yourself (DIY) execution platform for investment offered by Kotak Cherry’. Kotak Cherry’s CEO Srikanth Subramanian spoke about the strategic plan and value proposition offered via Kotak’s Kotak Cherry App, which is described as the app a Super App for investing to cater to the requirements of retail investors.
What is the business strategy motive behind the introduction of Kotak Cherry?
We are currently building Kotak Cherry as a Super App for investing to benefit retail investors. We’re a super-app that offers all investment solutions for investors, supported by experienced investment advisors with deep expertise in their field who have between two and three years of experience in the financial investment world.
We are aiming to become the only stop-shop for investors who are retail that can meet their complete financial needs, and acting as a guide in achieving the financial objectives they have set. The idea behind it is to let an investor walk to the App and say, I don’t need to sign out of this app for anything I could accomplish with my money. This is the direction Cherry is looking to go. It’s a continuous adventure. At the end in the calendar year we’d like to be near to becoming an all-service facility.
What are you placing Kotak Cherry?
It’s the rising of the traditional. It’s an amazing app that is that is curated by domain experts (within Kotak Group), and all solutions for investments are accessible at all times of time, while maintaining the emphasis on technology. Although it’s controlled by domain experts our software is as strong as any other app on the market. From reporting to the onboarding process or execution, everything we’ve been able to treat as hygiene.
In addition, 60percent of those surveyed stated that they’re willing to shell out for advice and another 35% stated they would be willing to pay for advice, if it was not expensive much. If we can provide value to investors, then they’ll be willing to pay. In the coming months , we will launch a subscription model , with additional options.
So what makes Kotak Cherry different from the hundreds of standard Fintech-developed equity trading apps available on the market?
The most significant difference we provide to benefit retailers is the ability to curation as well as open architecture. Our research revealed that what’s currently not offered in other Apps can be a great degree of curation that can aid retail investors in making an informed selection. An investment app that is super could not be the right position to use Kotak Cherry.
When you consider applications that fall within this category the entire range of products are placed in front of it, and the investor is typically left on his own. Curation is a solution we believe will provide some solutions.
There aren’t a lot of apps that claim to have solved the problem of curation. If you go through all the apps, the majority of them are focused on the trading of equity and mutual funds. A few have focused on bonds, REITs or mutual fund baskets. We will also provide international investment enablement, which we’ll be providing. Instead of throwing a myriad of choices at you We will provide you with well-curated options. It’s hard for anyone to claims to this, in the absence of having actually completed the task over a the course of.
We hope that our history will aid in better communication on curation. In the next few days we’ll also curate REITs when this market segment expands.
Who are your key customers? Do you want to tap your existing Kotak Group customers as your primary target market?
Our goal is to cover the entire market for retail investors which includes the ever-growing number of millennials as well as the first-to-market customers. In the next year, we’re hoping to get at least 1 million people as part of Kotak Cherry. We hope to be the go-to Super App for every retail investor. We are an open source platform, and we’ll soon accept all customers, regardless of the location where their banking or broking account is located.
This means that you can only be targeting customers in the demat community?
We’re not targeting just the Broking customers, nor the demat community. We have a larger engine for r, which allows us to target a wide range of customers. We believe that the game provides a more comprehensive and more horizontal option for investors. If traffic is more than one million, we won’t stop at one million because we say it’s one million. It’s a great application. Every user can enjoy numerous use cases, such as equity ETFs, gold bonds, and REITs.
One of our main focuses is to provide a more broad platform that offers an all-encompassing solution that allows an investor to trade multiple times with a single products. The 1 million investors are to be considered as a whole and having the investor use multiple applications within the app is big.
When will you be able to allow international investors to invest into Kotak Cherry?
We have selected two or three partners for our international investment capability. In the near future, both our domestic and international stock basket offerings will be available. We are currently evaluating some integration options that are in line with our vision of curation. We are looking at the option of partnering with a partner. The partner we’re searching for must be able to access the data and offer a more comprehensive service, including the curation we’re talking about. We’re still a bit away. Our vision for internationalization is not going to deviate from the fundamental concept. International investment is becoming the norm in India. Many have realized that the bias to home country is nearly 100 percent and are looking to diversify into international markets. The first-level thinking process is in place and we’ll be launching these services shortly, while keeping with our core values and current laws.