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Zerodha, Groww, Angel One see investor exodus in August 2025, smaller brokerages see uptick
Groww’s active clients stood at 120.72 lakh in August 2025, followed by Zerodha at 72.63 lakh, Angel One at 70.46 lakh, and Upstox at 23.78 lakh.
Big brokers face client outflow in August 2025.
India's leading discount broking platforms such as Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angel One have together witnessed a drop of 7 lakh active investors. In the first half of 2025, they collectively lost 20 lakh active clients. Not just the discount broking platforms, but Mirae Asset Capital, PhonePe Wealth, Sharekhan, Kotak Securities, and Motilal Oswal Financial also saw a decline in their client base during the same period.
According to a report by Moneycontrol, citing National Stock Exchange (NSE) data, Groww’s active clients stood at 120.72 lakh in August 2025, followed by Zerodha at 72.63 lakh, Angel One at 70.46 lakh, and Upstox at 23.78 lakh.
In July 2025, their active client base was: Groww (123.52 lakh), Zerodha (74.34 lakh), Angel One (71.97 lakh), and Upstox (24.74 lakh), respectively.
Mirae Asset lost 0.46 lakh clients month-on-month (MoM), with its active client base standing at 3.76 lakh in August 2025. HDFC Securities’ active investors were at 15.41 lakh—down 0.33 lakh MoM. Kotak Securities lost 0.19 lakh clients MoM to 14.25 lakh in the same period, while Sharekhan lost 0.18 lakh clients, bringing its August client base to 5.90 lakh.
Motilal Oswal’s active investor count stood at 9.66 lakh--down 0.18 lakh MoM.
The sharp contraction in futures and options activity due to regulatory measures introduced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last year has contributed to this decline. Besides, tighter margin requirements, curtailed weekly expiries, steeper capital thresholds, and higher taxation also made derivatives trading less attractive for retail investors, as per the Moneycontrol report.
Not all brokerages saw a drop in their active investor count. Paytm Money added 11,983 active clients, followed by SBICAP Securities with 7,400 and ICICI Securities with 6,512. Moreover, smaller players such as Aaritya Broking, Moneywise Finvest, Choice Equity Broking, Religare Broking, Jainam Broking, Yes Securities, IDBI Capital, and Bajaj Financial Securities also recorded incremental gains.
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