Appreciate launches the first low-cost, fractional global investing platform for Indians

• 14 Mar 2024
• TM Team
• 0 Comments

Appreciate, a SEBI and IFSCA registered fintech company, proudly announces its strategic collaboration with YES Securities and Samhita to offer a suite of investment and savings products for Indians across income groups on one platform - ranging from equity investments to savings account and fixed deposits.

Appreciate, founded by Subho Moulik (CEO), Shlok Srivastav (COO), and Yogesh Kansal (CMO), and headquartered in Mumbai, has recently launched a product to address the hurdles faced by Indian investors looking to invest in global markets. Appreciate breaks down barriers for investing outside India, from India - removing high remittance fees, hidden charges, and minimum investment amounts.

The company has created a unique and seamless one-click investing experience to access the U.S. stock market, which has a total market capitalization of over $46 trillion. With the Appreciate app, Indians can now invest in global stocks or fractions of the world’s most valuable stocks for as little as Re. 1.

Investing in U.S. markets allows investors to gain from USD appreciation and enables access to additional FX appreciation-linked annual returns, in addition to expected investment portfolio returns.

Appreciate’s partners include YES Securities - a leading full-service Indian broker - for cost-effective access to Indian securities, and Samhita - a leading social sector financial inclusion and livelihoods accelerator - to promote financial literacy, a key enabling step towards driving mass adoption of regular saving and investing habits.

Mr. Subho Moulik, Founder and CEO of Appreciate, emphasized the platform's commitment to helping investors, saying, "This is huge savings and returns unlock where millions of people want to take the first step towards financial diversification but have always been deterred by high minimums, high fees, and a poor experience. We have solved bottlenecks others have failed to solve to make investing in U.S. stocks easy and low-cost.  With Appreciate, even a kirana store owner in Vidarbha can open a free U.S. trading account, buy a fraction of any U.S. stock for as little as Re. 1 – and participate in the growth story of these companies.”

Subho added, “Today, an investor needs to go to their bank, fill out an A2 form, identify and sign-up with a brokerage firm abroad, and then pay anywhere between Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,500 for the wire transfer, on top of dealing with the back and forth with a bank on remittance processing. This has been a key challenge for Indian investors who want to diversify their investments abroad – a challenge that we have worked on diligently and solved.”

The Appreciate platform provides a user-friendly interface, granting investors access to a comprehensive suite of financial tools, personalized investment recommendations, and expert insights. Appreciate’s AI-recommendations engine helps customers identify the right investments for them, based on key technical indicators and simplified research made available on the Appreciate platform, at the click of a button.  

Appreciate's future offerings will extend beyond U.S. stocks, ETFs, and bonds to Indian mutual funds, Indian stocks, rupee fixed deposits, and other domestic financial investment products. The company plans to rapidly accelerate its domestic product offerings over the course of the year 2024, to fulfill its vision of being the financial destination for one billion Indians to achieve their financial goals.  

Mr. Prashant Kumar, Chairman of YES Securities (India) Limited, said, “Our partnership with Appreciate signifies a landmark moment where 1.4 billion Indians gain the unique opportunity to not only invest but to truly create wealth, now with seamless access to overseas markets. I firmly believe that this collaboration is not just about expanding our scale and distribution; it's about elevating the standard of service we provide to our customers. Together, we see an exciting journey of innovation and growth that will have a lasting impact for years to come.”

Ms. Priya Naik, Founder and CEO of Samhita said, “Our partnership with Appreciate to drive financial literacy and empowerment using digital learning supplemented by digital saving and investing tools will provide support to women and those sections of society that are beginning their saving and investment journeys.  This is a key step to help 1.4 billion Indians build resilience through a regular saving and investing habit.”

In addition to providing a full suite of savings and investment products for consumers, Appreciate also has a strong B2B technology solution stack across investments, remittances, financial distributor management, cash management, credit sourcing, credit scoring, and Gen-AI applications.  The company works with multiple financial sector customers to embed these B2B technology solutions into B2B customer applications and customer interfaces, enabling B2B customers to achieve their product and customer goals better and faster.

Appreciate’s commitment to transparency, safety, and trustworthiness, coupled with its low fees and customer-centric approach, positions it as the preferred choice for customers seeking a reliable destination to achieve their financial goals.