Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of our series on robo advisors. Here we list out and review the most popular and top robo advisors for investing in Indian stock market, mutual funds, and be handy for financial planning. To read Part 1, where we discuss what a robo advisor is, what is a robo advisor used for, and what are the pros and cons of using robo advisors, click here.
Robo advisors are becoming increasingly popular these days as a cheaper and more accessible alternative to human wealth advisors to get financial planning advice. Given the number of options in the rapidly growing robo advisory market and the importance of choosing the right option that works for you, foraying into this space might seem intimidating.
To ease you in and let you know who the major players are and what factors you might want to keep in mind while selecting a robo advisor platform, here’s our curated list of 5 Top Robo Advisors in India (arranged alphabetically).
(Note: All screenshots and data like App ratings and downloads are as of 21/01/2020, unless mentioned otherwise.)
Table of Contents
About the Advisor: The 5Paisa.com robo advisor isn't entirely free. The free feature, which is available to everybody, determines your risk profile after asking you a few questions. The advisory feature that gives you portfolio suggestions comes with the Platinum (?499/month) and Titanium (?999/month) plans. (Opening a Mutual Funds Investment Account with this platform is free of charge.)
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Extra Crunch: 5Paisa.com is a Mumbai-based discount broker that also offers robo advisory services. It was launched in March 2016 and is a part of the financial services group IIFL.
5Paisa.com is reportedly the 10th largest broker and 2nd largest discount broker (after Zerodha) in the country. As of November 2019, the platform had nearly 3L active clients, which is up 166% from April 2019.
It is not only a robo advisor – it also offers brokerage services. Its 2-in-1 account (demat + trading account) offers you an option to invest and trade in the stock market as well as in mutual funds. And besides a website and mobile apps for Android and iOS, it provides a trading terminal that can be installed on your desktop. This can be used by frequent traders for advanced analyses.
About the Advisor: ET Money’s portfolio recommendation dashboard is unique. Based on different combinations of monthly SIP and investment period, it gives you various investment options based on expected returns. And you can browse through many categories – including “Invest Like Warren Buffet”, “Digital Gold Mutual Funds” and “Buy Low Sell High Funds”.
More extensive categories are available for free (e.g. by market capitalisation and by diversification) as well as for Pro Users (e.g. by sector and themes).
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Extra Crunch: Times Internet-backed ET Money was launched in 2016 and had posted over ?500cr in mutual fund sales within two years of its launch.
ET Money also offers zero-commission direct mutual funds and other financial products like insurance, loans and cards. It has also struck partnerships with a variety of financial services companies and banks including RBL Bank and Reliance Mutual Fund.
About the Advisor: FundsIndia’s robo advisor is named Money Mitr. According to the company, this service “will enable any investor to get high-quality, personalised advice and an investment portfolio in a matter of minutes”. It offers mutual fund portfolios for lump sum, SIP-oriented, tax-saving, long-term and goal-oriented investment requirements, among others.
The robo advisor service is free but requires the user to create an account with FundsIndia. Once the account is created, the user is asked a few questions and based on their answers an investor portfolio is built.
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Extra Crunch: Founded in 2009, Chennai-based FundsIndia is run by Wealth India Financial Services, one of India’s largest mutual fund distribution platforms. As of May 2019, FundsIndia has ?6,400cr AUM and 2.4L “investing” investors.
It also offers a range of financial products like mutual funds, equities and deposits besides flexible SIPs, trigger-based investing and financial advisory (the automated version of which has been explained above).
Mumbai-based and founded in 2016, Orowealth had a user base on 3L and AUM of over ?2,000cr as of January 2019.
Its robo advisory tool is called OroAssist. It can be accessed only after you create an account on the platform. Once you do, it lists some goals that you could invest towards (like education, retirement etc.) and then asks you a few queries to create your risk profile and suggests some mutual fund options on the same.
Orowealth also offers many financial calculators that can be used to determine how much money should be saved to achieve a certain goal.
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Extra Crunch: Orowealth also offers financial tools for execution, analysis and advice on various products such as mutual funds, stocks, insurance etc. It also has existing partnerships with large financial institutions like Sharekhan and Online Trading Academy to provide wealth management solutions to their clients.
About the Advisor: Scripbox’s robo advisor service is free. Based on your investment needs – i.e., if you aim to build wealth, save tax, be emergency ready etc. – it has questionnaires for you. Based on your answers, it draws a sample investment portfolio, suggesting mutual funds you could invest in, and details about the same.
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Extra Crunch: Just like many other mutual fund investment and advisory platforms, Scripbox has also created practical training tools for consumers to help them make more informed investment decisions.
These were five of the most popular robo advisors in India. But there are many more. Some of these are listed below:
Meanwhile, the robo advisory sector could be looking at significant disruption in the near future. This is because two deep-pocketed players - Coin by Zerodha and Paytm Money - might enter the segment. And they have the potential to up-end the entire game by attracting more investors, changing the dynamics between existing players, and normalising robo advisory in general.
(This is Part 2 of our series on robo advisors. To read Part 1, where we discuss what is a robo advisor, what a robo advisor does, and pros and cons of robo advisors, click here.)
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