
Nithin Kamath
@Nithin0dha • 1,008,939 subscribers
Founder & CEO @Zerodha @Rainmatterin Learning at @RainmatterOrg Musings on business & life: https://t.co/gQi9cu6E5h. Views are personal, Nothing is advice.
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Taking a loan has never been easier. There is almost no friction between wanting something and borrowing to pay for it. The problem is that income is limited, while the list of things we want is endless. And often, it isn’t even the purchase we want as much as the momentary thrill of buying it. We are taught how to earn and save, but learning how to spend is just as important. When an impulse purchase becomes an EMI, you are committing future income even before it hits your account. The excitement of spending fades in days, but the debt stays for years. Borrowing to invest in a home, education, or business makes sense. Borrowing for lifestyle consumption locks you into a loop that leaves no breathing room when an emergency hits. In this video, Zero1 by Zerodha looks at why household debt in India is rising, how to assess whether your debt is manageable, and practical ways to pay it down. Congratulations to Prateek Singh, Swati Sharma, and the team on crossing 800,000 subscribers.
Nithin Kamath107,582 views • 2 days ago

It's been almost 20 years since I got my Airtel connection, and I've easily paid them more than Rs. 25 lakh in that time. I can't think of any other business that has made even close to this much money from me. Now the reason why I am saying this is I was watching the latest episode of the Intermission by The Ken. In case you haven't checked it out, it's a wonderful show on the history of some of the biggest businesses in India. Their latest episode is about Airtel and Rohin, and Seetharaman traced the entire Airtel journey, and I didn't realize that Airtel has had many, many near-death experiences and yet always came out stronger to be the business that it is today.
Nithin Kamath763,089 views • 1 month ago

For the last 45–60 minutes of every day, my unwinding routine has been sitting with Seema and Kiaan while they read. I still can't seem to read a physical book myself. There's some kind of mental block, so I usually listen to an audiobook or a podcast instead. That said, I do think reading a physical book is probably better. It demands your full attention in a way that very little else does. One thing that's made a surprisingly big difference to my sleep is having a proper wind-down routine. An hour before bed, all screens go off (other than the audiobook or podcast), and I try to get to bed at the same time every night. It's amazing how much consistency and a simple routine can improve sleep. Maybe the next challenge is finally getting myself to finish a physical book. Seema and Kiaan recently took part in the India Reads Aloud initiative by Turning Pages, which is trying to get more children to discover the joy of reading. Full video link in comments.
Nithin Kamath114,890 views • 8 days ago

8 years back, I spoke to jack schwager, the man behind the Market Wizards series. Sandeep Rao - SEBI Reg. RA🖖 spoke to him again recently on In The Money, and it was an interesting conversation. Market Wizards is probably the only book I've read multiple times when I was trading actively. The one thing that stood out to me from the video was the debate between systematic vs. discretionary trading. There's a common assumption that the best traders are rules-based, meaning they follow a fixed set of rules. The logic is that this helps them keep their emotions in check so they can follow the signals dispassionately. But what Jack found among the traders he interviewed was that almost all of them were discretionary traders. They had rules, but they knew when not to follow them. Meaning, they knew when their approach wasn't working and when they had to change the "rules" they were following. The one purely systematic trader he ever profiled kept changing his systems. He once showed Jack the equity curve of the original system he made his first money on. It went straight up while he traded it, and straight down after he abandoned it. If he had stuck to it with blind discipline, he would have been wiped out. At the very least, what this shows is that there isn't just one way to make money. There are numerous approaches that work, and you ultimately have to figure out what works for you and stick with that approach until it stops working, because nothing works all the time. People change, the markets change, and so do the strategies. Full episode link in comments.
Nithin Kamath70,414 views • 11 days ago

The most exciting thing about Varsity Tribe is that it's building a community of young people who are curious about money, saving, investing, trading, and building wealth. Financial literacy is one of the most important life skills, yet it's rarely taught. If more youngsters understand how money works early in life, they're far better equipped to make smarter decisions, build wealth, and even take the leap into entrepreneurship.
Nithin Kamath46,437 views • 10 days ago

This is my first long conversation in a very, very long time. The idea was to talk about all the things that make Zerodha what it is today, because a lot of people don’t really know how differently Zerodha has been built compared to most other companies. We’ve never raised external capital. We don’t advertise. We don’t have a sales team with sales targets. We don’t do much marketing. We don’t push people to trade or invest. And we have a relatively small team that has remained at roughly 1,000 people since around 2018–19, even though the business has grown five or six times since then. In this conversation, I spoke about all these things and more: how we think about growth, risk, competition, and the future of Zerodha. This is also the beginning of a new series where we want to shine a spotlight on the people who have made Zerodha what it is today. A lot of them aren’t very well known, so the idea is to put them on the spot and tell their stories. Check out the full conversation on the Zerodha YouTube channel. The link is in the comments.
Nithin Kamath81,441 views • 21 days ago

Akshayakalpa has 13 years of data showing that simply introducing bee boxes increases the average coconut yield per farm by 20%. It’s such a massive win-win that they’ve now integrated 7,500 bee boxes across all their farms. Shashi from Akshayakalpa Organic recently brought over two bee boxes for my home to get us started with beekeeping. In this clip (full video in comments), he walks through how incredibly simple it is to set up a bee home, even in smaller or semi-urban spaces. The bigger takeaway here is about how we view sustainability. We often look for grand, complex technological solutions to environmental issues. But the reality is that our survival is deeply tied to basic, interconnected ecosystems. Without pollinators, our food systems collapse; roughly a third of what we eat depends entirely on them. Taking care of them isn't just a good deed; it's an absolute necessity for our own survival. And I think education is the key, which maybe the bee boxes in urban spaces can do. Can’t be prouder of everything that the Akshayakalpa team is doing for improving the quality of life of farmers, their economics, their cows, and everything else.
Nithin Kamath151,963 views • 1 month ago

One of the reasons filing takes time is the constant back-and-forth with your accountant. Zerodha’s Tax P&L reports were already largely tax-ready, but over the last few months, we’ve spent quite a bit of time making them even better. Btw, historically, brokers didn’t really provide good tax statements, which made filing taxes on trading and investing a pain in the ***. Around 2013, we realised that this could be a significant value-add for customers, and we became the first broker to offer a dedicated Tax P&L statement. We also created a dedicated Varsity module on taxation related to trading and investing to make customers’ lives a little easier. Taxation on market activity has changed significantly since then and has only become more complicated. Our tax reports account for these changes, so you don’t have to worry about figuring everything out yourself. Some new things we’ve added recently: 1. The Trade-wise Entry/Exit and Equity sheets now classify investments as equity, non-equity, and debt ETFs. 2. Short-term and long-term capital gains from non-equity transactions are now shown separately. 3. Dividend income now comes with a quarter-wise breakup, while interest received from debt securities is available in a dedicated Debt Interest Statement along with dividends. 4. You can now download quarterly Tax P&L reports aligned with advance-tax due dates. 5. The Tax P&L page now also includes a summary of profits and losses from non-equity transactions. So, you can now pretty much download the reports and send them directly to your CA without worrying that something important might be missing. You can also check out Quicko in case you need help.
Nithin Kamath49,282 views • 14 days ago

Nik has been on a roll, and for someone who started ~50 episodes ago and does it as a side gig, he has really improved over time. Full pro-podcaster he has become. 😀 Goes on to show that the odds of success are much higher when you build things around what you love. Nikhil Kamath is curious, looks good, listens, and speaks well, and the magic sauce is launching the podcast at the right time when podcasting in India was just taking off. The thing that stood out to me was what Elon Musk said beautifully towards the end of the podcast, and also describes much of what Nik does with WTF, which I’m proud of as a brother. “I’m a big fan of anyone who wants to build. Anyone who aims to make more than they take has my respect. That’s really the core principle: strive to be a net contributor to society. It’s similar to the pursuit of happiness. If you want to create something valuable or financially successful, the goal shouldn’t be the money itself. Instead, focus on providing genuinely useful products and services. When you do that, the financial rewards tend to follow naturally. Just like happiness—you don’t chase it directly; you pursue the things that lead to it: fulfilling work, learning, friendships, loved ones. The happiness is a byproduct. It might sound obvious, but anyone starting a company should expect to work extremely hard, accept that there’s a real chance of failure, and stay focused on ensuring that the output is worth more than the input. Are you creating value? That’s what matters. Make more than you take.”
Nithin Kamath532,568 views • 8 months ago

We, Zerodha, have ~40k NRI customers with an average account value of ₹40L, nearly 10x our overall average of ₹3.6L for resident accounts. Most of them opened accounts the hard way, with physical paperwork. If onboarding were fully online, this base would be much larger. SEBI recently made changes that have allowed us to significantly simplify Non-PIS NRI accounts: they now work like resident accounts, with fully online Aadhaar-based onboarding (when visiting India) and intraday, BTST, and F&O access with no need for a CP code. We've also reduced the brokerage from ₹100 to ₹50 per order. For context: NRIs can open NRO (without PIS) or NRE accounts to invest in India. NRE accounts allow repatriation of funds to your country of residence, but are more complex to operate. NRO (Non-PIS) accounts are simpler to open and operate, though repatriation is capped at USD 1 million per year. Hoping to see more NRI capital flowing back into Indian businesses.🤞
Nithin Kamath338,198 views • 6 months ago

Imagine this: A stranger approaches you and asks to use your phone to make an emergency call. Most well-meaning people would probably hand over their phone. But this is a new scam. From intercepting your OTPs to draining your bank accounts, scammers can cause serious damage without you even realizing it. In this video, we , explain how these scammers operate, who they target, and, most importantly, how you can protect yourself.
Nithin Kamath839,191 views • 1 year ago

We have been using Zerodor (Ekam Eco Solutions Pvt. Ltd.) for the men’s urinals at our offices for the last six months or so. Our water bills are down 50%—we did not expect it to be this much. It seems like a no-brainer for offices, restaurants, etc., where we have managed washrooms. They were on Shark Tank India around a year back. Here is how it works. We liked the product because they are doing whatever is necessary to preserve water, which has become supercritical. We are supporting them through Rainmatter by Zerodha. Check out the blog for more details.
Nithin Kamath749,975 views • 1 year ago

When we were starting Zerodha, we didn't have any money to spend on advertising or customer acquisition. So the only real growth lever we had was word of mouth. We had to build products and services that people liked enough to tell their friends and family about. Very early on, people who traded with us started referring Zerodha to their friends, colleagues, and family. As a way of saying thank you, we started our referral program. The idea was simple: if you referred someone to Zerodha, we would share 10% of the brokerage generated by that referral with you, for as long as they traded with us. No ifs and buts. No hidden conditions. And it worked. Until we had to stop the referral program in 2024 due to exchange regulations, close to 30% of our accounts were coming through referrals. But even this understated the true impact of word of mouth. Most people don’t log in to a referral portal or share a referral link. They simply tell a friend, colleague, or family member: “You should open an account with Zerodha. I use it and like it.” Those people then come directly to our website and open an account. So while the attributed referral number was around 30%, the real number was probably well north of 50%. Even after we stopped offering referral incentives, about 15–20% of new accounts continued to come from referrals. That, for us, has always been the biggest validation. We now have regulatory clarity and have restarted referrals. We are also reinstating referral benefits for all old clients who had referred people earlier. This means that anyone who has ever referred clients to Zerodha will get 10% of the brokerage generated by those referrals for as long as they trade with us. You can visit and tell your friends and family about Zerodha. Given that we don’t charge for investing in stocks, ETFs, bonds, and direct mutual funds, and given that AMC is free or nearly zero for most customers under BSDA, there's no reason for you not to refer someone who wants to start saving and investing🙂 Along with Kite, Coin by Zerodha, Console, Varsity, TradingQnA, Tijori, Sensibull - India's No:1 Options Trading Platform, Ditto Insurance, Zerodha Fund House, and the rest of the ecosystem we’ve built around investors and traders, we hope Zerodha remains a good place for your friends and family to begin their investing journey.
Nithin Kamath71,080 views • 1 month ago

I was watching this video by Rainmatter Foundation about how Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) cleaned up the Kham river in 5 years. It had become a sewage drain, and they turned it back into a flowing river. Made me think about especially of Delhi's air quality problem. They mapped 249 waste entry points with drones and installed traps. Rerouted sewage to treatment plants and built new ones. Set up a facility for textile waste from factories. Cleaned the river and discovered springs that were buried under debris. Fixed waste collection across the city, removed 170 dump sites. The municipal commissioner joined weekend cleanups himself. Citizens showed up every Saturday. The key was stopping waste from entering the river in the first place, not just cleaning it. If a smaller city can pull this off in 5 years with the municipal corporation, NGOs, and citizens working together, I was wondering if governments, businesses, NGOs, and citizens actually collaborate, can't they make a difference in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and many other cities where the Air quality is really bad.
Nithin Kamath190,735 views • 7 months ago

When it comes to personal finance, people somehow keep making the same mistakes over and over again. There’s very little creativity in the mistakes people make. Take investing. Pretty much every influencer, every serious finance writer, and the financial media have been screaming for years: don’t mix insurance with investments. ULIPs are usually a bad idea. Endowment policies are usually a bad idea. And yet, ULIP sales continue to grow and endowment plans continue to be sold. People continue to fall for the same pitches, despite all the articles, videos, and excel sheets explaining why these products are bad. The same applies to health insurance, though I have a little more sympathy there. Health insurance is genuinely complicated. There are tiny clauses, room rent caps, waiting periods, exclusions, and conditions that most people don’t fully understand and then they find out the hard way, when they still have to pay out of pocket despite having a policy. But with products like ULIPs and endowment plans, there’s no excuse. These are not impossibly complicated products. Even a cursory Google search will tell you the problem. And today, in 2026, you can just ask ChatGPT or Claude whether a product is a good idea, and they’ll usually show you the math, explain the catches, and give you pointers on what to do. And yet, people still keep falling for the same thing. Prateek Singh from Zero1 by Zerodha has made a really nice video on some of the biggest mistakes Indians make with investing and health insurance. It’s worth watching, and sharing with your friends and family too.
Nithin Kamath77,054 views • 3 months ago

In November 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that accessibility is a fundamental right, directing businesses to ensure their digital platforms are accessible to people with disabilities. The Court essentially said that in a digital-first world, denying digital access means denying basic rights. It's not just about compliance, it's about constitutional equality. Accessibility has been core to how we build at . The mandate didn't change our approach, it just gave us a deadline. And since we don't have to rebuild for accessibility from scratch, we are confident to be able to make the deadline. 🙂 Here's one of our users with severe visual impairment using Kite.
Nithin Kamath184,282 views • 8 months ago

Saturday, 7 PM at the festival, almost 3,000 people - after a full day of workouts and workshops on health and nutrition, the energy was electric, not depleted. There was absolutely no alcohol. India is one of the few countries where alcohol consumption hasn't declined in recent years. I think it's inevitable, though, and this was a clear sign. The idea behind hosting this peakst8 festival was to test openness to health-centred events. The feedback: a resounding yes. Bringing it to more cities.
Nithin Kamath143,451 views • 7 months ago

We, , just launched Portfolio Performance Curve on Console. This allows you to visualize your account performance, and you can compare it to a benchmark like Nifty 50. We're probably the only broker to offer this feature in India and possibly worldwide. The performance curve is calculated in a similar way to the NAV of mutual funds. The daily NAV is calculated using the P&L of all trades across equity intraday and delivery, F&O, commodities, MTF, and mutual funds based on the cash in the account. The idea with benchmarking is to show you that if you are underperforming, maybe investing in an index fund would be better for you. 🙈 It was on our list of things to do for a long time, but there were way too many moving pieces, and it got delayed.
Nithin Kamath262,869 views • 1 year ago