PhonePe rebrands Share.Market as PhonePe Invest
What's the story
PhonePe, India's leading payments company, has rebranded its stockbroking platform Share.Market as PhonePe Invest. The move is aimed at attracting a wider range of investors who want to build and manage large equity portfolios. The rebranding comes with a portfolio-building and optimization feature for tracking investments and adjusting portfolios based on performance and diversification.
Market strategy
Tapping into the wealth-tech market
Rahul Chari, co-founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer of PhonePe, said the company is looking to tap into the larger wealth-tech market among its massive customer base.
He noted a gap between small-ticket savings on the payments app and direct stock market trading on the Share.Markets app.
The company has always sold regular mutual funds on its platform, earning commission while suggesting or recommending various mutual fund plans.
Technological integration
AI for personalized investment advice
PhonePe plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide personalized investment advice at a large scale.
Chari said the company is now targeting a new wealth segment among the mass segment with PhonePe Invest.
He added that while other broking platforms have made stock investing easier, PhonePe can simplify portfolio building at a population scale.
User guidance
Simplifying portfolio management
The portfolio optimizer on PhonePe Invest is built around three stages: build, track, and optimize.
It aims to guide first-time long-term equity investors through building a portfolio, analyzing its performance, and identifying opportunities to improve diversification and returns.
Depending on the analysis, users could be advised to hold, monitor, or sell an investment.
This feature is designed to make managing investments less complex for users.
Innovation
Using AI for fund evaluation
PhonePe's research team, which consists of less than six people, uses AI to create and test analytical models for mutual funds and equities.
The model called CRISP evaluates funds across five factors and provides a score.
Chari said that AI has reduced the time and team size required to develop, test, and refine these research models.
User acquisition
Customer acquisition strategy
PhonePe also intends to use its existing payments app to identify users who may be ready to invest. This will be done by looking at their savings in gold and mutual funds.
However, Chari said customer acquisition would not depend solely on cross-selling to existing users.
The company is betting that its experience in expanding digital payments and small-ticket financial products can translate into equity investing.