Raise Financial Services, which owns and operates the stock trading platform Dhan, has raised $120 million in a Series B round led by Hornbill Capital, with participation from MUFG and BEENEXT, the company said on Monday.
The round values the Mumbai-based fintech at $1.2 billion, marking its entry into the unicorn club.
It also saw participation from prominent public market investors, including Ramesh Damani, DSP Family Office, JM Financial Family Office, and Aashish Somaiyaa, among others.
Capital plans
The fresh capital will be used to scale Dhan, strengthen its technology and AI capabilities, and introduce new products focused on investing and distribution of financial services.
“With this investment, we’re excited to grow, innovate and double down on our focus on Dhan,” said Pravin Jadhav, founder and chief executive of Raise Financial Services.
Raise, which was founded in January 2021 by Jadhav along with Alok Pandey, Jay Prakash Gupta, and Raunak Rathi, is building a broader ecosystem of technology-led financial products. Its portfolio includes ScanX, a markets research platform that offers real-time news, screeners, and analytics for Indian equities; Upsurge, an education platform for retail investors and traders; Filter Coffee, a media platform offering bite-sized financial content for Gen Z and millennials; and Fuzz, an AI model trained on large-scale financial datasets to deliver contextual, verified insights for Indian investors and professionals.
Dhan, launched in late 2021, has nearly one million active users. Dhan offers a suite of tools such as Options Trader by Dhan, Dhan Charts, and DhanHQ Trading APIs, catering to both power traders and long-term investors.
“Dhan—driven by a product-first mindset and strong technology focus—has built one of India’s leading stock trading platforms in a profitable and capital-efficient manner,” said Manoj Thakur, founder of Hornbill Capital. He added that Hornbill has tracked leaders in India’s capital markets for over a decade, and Dhan has “earned the trust of both traders and investors” by being highly responsive to user feedback.
Raise is backed by Hornbill Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investments, MUFG, BEENEXT, and 3one4 Capital, along with several leading Indian startup founders and technology entrepreneurs.
Dhan’s competitors include other stock broking platforms like Zerodha, Groww, and Upstox. The fresh funding in Dhan comes at a time when Groww is in the process of a public listing to raise ₹7,000 crore ($840 million approx), after closing a pre-IPO funding of $250 million from GIC.
Financial performance
Moneylicious Securities, the parent company of discount broking platform Dhan, posted gross revenues of ₹379.2 crore ($45 million) in FY24 — an eightfold jump from ₹48.4 crore ($6.53 million) a year earlier, as per filings with credit rating agency Care Edge.
The firm swung to a net profit of ₹177.35 crore ($21.3 million) from a loss of ₹26.69 crore ($3.2 million) in FY23, driven largely by higher brokerage income from its retail-focused client base. Moneylicious was acquired by Raise Fintech Ventures in 2021 and now operates as its subsidiary.
Shashank Joshi of MUFG said the bank’s investment reflects the “accelerating digital adoption of financial products in India” and credited Dhan for building “customer-centric, technology-led products that deliver speed and reliability at scale.”
BEENEXT’s Hero Choudhary, an early investor in Raise, said the firm was doubling down as the company expands into a broader tech-driven financial services play. “We have witnessed the journey from being a startup idea to a formidable business,” he said.
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Raise and its investors, while Veritas Legal advised the company and its shareholders.
