Upstox founder’s startup Rain Platforms to raise new round

Fintech startup Rain Platforms is in advanced talks with existing and new investors to raise its pre-Series A round, two sources aware of the development told Entrackr.

Rain Platforms, a company founded by Upstox founder Raghu Kumar and AGacquisitions founder Harsh Agarwal, builds, owns and operates socially enabled investing and trading platforms at the intersection of fintech and gaming.

“Rain Platforms is eyeing to raise its pre-Series A round and is in late-stage conversations with several individuals, VCs and some family offices,” said one of the sources. “The company aims to introduce a gamified experience of the stock markets with its upcoming product launch of TradingLeagues.”

As per its Linkedin profile, Rain Platforms currently runs two products: TradingRooms and TradingLeagues. The firm is registered in the US but a majority of its operations are based out of its Bengaluru office. The company is looking to grow and scale TradingLeagues across India.

Sources also said that Rain Platforms already raised its seed round from a group of angel investors, including the likes of KP Balaraj (founder of Westbridge and Sequoia India), Yash Poddar, Raghu Kumar, and notable family offices.

Queries sent to Rain Platforms did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post in case they do.

TradingLeagues appears to be a Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) equivalent for the financial markets. While there is no direct competition in India, DraftKings and FanDuel are some notable players working in a similar space.

Raghu Kumar, along with Ravi Kumar, and Shrinivas Vishwanath, started RKSV Securities in 2009 which later changed to Upstox in 2016. The Upstox team is now being led by Ravi Kumar (CEO) while Kavitha Subramanian and Shrinivas Viswanath are its other two co-founders. Raghu Kumar, who later moved to the US, still holds a 15.41% stake in the fintech unicorn as its largest non-institutional shareholder, as per Fintrackr’s estimates.

Harsh Agarwal founded and operated the hedge fund and global investment company AGacquisitions, along with his brother Kanishk Agarwal, for more than 10 years. Kanishk Agarwal is an advisor to Rain Platforms.