CEO Kenghe Foresees Market Opening Ahead of FY26 Close

• Angel One's new Group CEO, Ambarish Kenghe, expects business momentum to recover by Q4 FY26, post-regulatory F&O setbacks and macroeconomic pressures.
• Despite a Q4 FY25 profit drop of 48 percent, Angel One saw FY25 revenue rise 22 percent to Rs 5,238 crore, diversification efforts include mutual funds, lending, and wealth management.
• Kenghe plans deeper AI integration across business functions, from personalized client communications to KYC and operational efficiency, to future-proof the 1996-founded firm.

Angel One's new group chief executive officer, Ambarish Kenghe, is hopeful that business traction will accelerate towards the end of the ongoing financial year as the initial impact of the regulatory measures on speculative trading and the global macroeconomic issues stabilize.

Kenghe, who had earlier headed Google Pay for India, took over the corner office of the stockbroker four months ago. He arrived in the business when stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India clamped down on the rules of the speculative futures and options (F&O) trading business. This has upset tech-first startups such as Zerodha, Groww, Dhan and Angel One, which earn most of their revenue from F&O trades.

Mumbai-based Angel One reported a 48 percent fall in net profit to Rs 174 crore in the fourth quarter of FY25, when revenue fell 22 percent to Rs 1,056 crore from a year earlier. Despite the hit due to regulatory changes, its fiscal year revenue grew 22 percent to Rs 5,238 crore, while net profit grew narrowly to Rs 1,172 crore from Rs 1,125 crore.

Groww generated a total revenue of Rs 4,056 crore and a net profit of Rs 1,819 crore in FY25. Zerodha chief executive Nithin Kamath has said he is anticipating a decline in the broking business by 20-30 percent, but is targeting reaching Rs 10,000 crore in revenue by FY26. In FY24, its last reported financials, the company posted a net profit of Rs 4,700 crore on a total income of Rs 8,320 crore.

Venture-capital backed Groww, recently valued at $7 billion in a private funding round, is also looking to list and filed its draft red herring prospectus with capital markets regulator Sebi in May. Active clients on NSE-wise, Groww is the largest brokerage with 12.9 million, followed by Zerodha and Angel One at 7.8 million and 7.5 million clients, respectively.

“We plan for the long-term and the guidance in our last management commentary was that the revenue curve has bottomed out, and there are signs of improvement since March”, Kenghe told ET. “We expect momentum to build up meaningfully by Q4 FY26”.

Crisil Ratings added the pressure in the equities market led to average turnover for cash and F&O business to dip by approximately 26 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter of FY25.

For Angel One, in the same period, turnover declined 20 percent to Rs 32 lakh crore, it added. The note added that in the past five fiscal years, two-thirds of Angel One's revenues was generated through stockbroking.

At a group level, Ange One is attempting to diversify away from core broking and has diversified its business into mutual fund distribution, wealth management, manufacturing of mutual fund products and also focuses on building scale in the lending business. Also, Angel One is also using its 9,400-member agent network, or as they call them, authorised persons, to provide services for investors who require guidance.

ET in February had reported that wealth management business of Angel One Ionic Wealth had built a $250 million asset base in one year of operations.

Groww and Zerodha have also spread their bets in the business in an attempt to diversify their income away from stockbroking. While Groww entered into wealth management through the acquisition of Fisdom, Zerodha is expanding its lending company, Zerodha Capital. Groww and Zerodha have also established their own asset management companies.

We are doing passive funds through our AMC; we have created an average asset under management of more than Rs 200 crore, which will increase. We are also enabling personal loans through six partner lenders", Kenghe said. The firm received its AMC license in November 2024.

Although Angel One is not leveraging its in-house finance company, it has disbursed approximately Rs 700 crore in personal loans through six lending partners.

Having joined from a technology background, Kenghe, who had also been with Myntra, aims to facilitate the implementation of artificial intelligence across the various business verticals of this 1996-incorporated firm.

He said that he is considering employing AI more and more in product personalisation, client communication such as making welcome videos entirely AI driven or market reports to be read by AI in various languages. Kenghe is also encouraging his team to leverage AI for learning and upskilling and it is being used for operational efficiency such as in KYC, customer onboarding and document verification.