Exclusive: Groww plans to shift its domicile from US to India

Full-stack financial services platform Groww is planning to move its domicile from the US to India, according to two sources aware of the development. With this, Groww will be among the top fintech unicorns to shift or that have plans to shift its holding entity to India.

“Groww is considering moving from the US amid tighter regulation. The talks are in preliminary stages and it may take months to complete the process,” said one of the sources on the condition of anonymity.

According to sources, more companies could join the list. Recently, PhonePe shifted its domicile from Singapore to India while Razorpay is also in process to move its parent entity from the US to India. Rahul Chari, co-founder and CTO of PhonePe, also said that if regulations are eased, at least another 20 unicorns could look at shifting their domicile to India.

Shifting domicile, however, is going to be a costly affair for the companies, and this can be gauged from PhonePe’s investors paying Rs 8,000 crore in taxes to complete the process.

The Indian government has been encouraging local startups to redomicile to India and set up their base in the IFSC GIFT City l and tap into the international market opportunities. According to an ET report, the government has set up an expert committee, which includes founders such as Lalit Keshre of Groww and Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha.

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

Backed by the likes of Tiger Global, Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Groww turned unicorn in April 2021 with $83 million fundraise in a Series D round. The company scooped up $251 million in the next round in October at a valuation of $3 billion.

Groww’s revenue soared 11.7X to Rs 351 crore in FY22 from Rs 30 crore in FY21. Due to a sharp spike in expenditure, Groww’s losses grew 3X to Rs 239 crore in FY22 from Rs 78 crore in the previous fiscal year. The company is yet to file its FY23 numbers.