Upstox recently surpassed the acquisition of 6 million customers. Nearly 70 percent of the total customer base are first-time investors. More than 80 percent of customers are from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Brokerages will need to focus on creating value for customers beyond competing aggressively on price. The differentiator will be in providing unique user experiences, service-level offerings and educational tools that the brokerages offer to their customers and API trading will help in providing the services bouquet that Upstox has to offer. Shrini Viswanath – Co- Founder, Upstox speaks with EC on the potential of API trading.
Excerpts :
API trading will bring about a paradigm shift in how trading is done. What are your plans on using API to bring about freedom for the trader in almost unshackling him/her from all the intermediation between the trader and the markets?
APIs have gained popularity as traders realize the benefits of automated trading tools, allowing them to hedge bets, and abandon traditional manual trades. Traders can use it to trade stocks, crypto, commodities, and virtually every other asset under the sun. API trading makes it possible to offer customers the depth and breadth of services they provide.
How will low code help in API trading?
Developers are high in demand and short in supply. Companies that are unable to hire developers are increasingly turning to low-code platforms. We are moving away from historical data that is available in downloadable files to a new approach that involves API access to data making itself discoverable. Low code data simplifies the process of building and testing mobile applications.
What is the overall vision statement of Upstox and how far are you from reaching there?
Upstox wants to provide a seamless digital platform that can be used by everyone, be it new-to-market customers or seasoned traders. We have been working on making Upstox the most intuitive and easy-to-use investment platform for everyone. At Upstox, our vision is to make investing simple, affordable and accessible to people from all walks of life, and we are on track to achieve it.
Upstox has recently seen lots of new developments, including a completely revamped platform, the unveiling of a new logo, and crossing the 6 million customer mark. We believe that this is only the start of a new era. We are very excited for our users to try out our new platform, which has a completely new and significant design. We have also made interface improvements that will provide them with a seamless and cutting-edge browsing experience.
The new Upstox version aims to help our users to place trades as quickly as earlier, while also providing the tools, information, and insights they need to make better trading decisions. Users can log in with a single tap, access curated news, create dynamic watchlists, and view reports directly from the app, among other things, with a faster and simpler platform.
The new Upstox will be constantly updated in order to empower and improve trading and investment performance. We will be releasing new tools very soon to help users with IPO applications, stock discovery and analysis, options trading with a powerful strategy builder, and gaining AI-backed insights from trading behaviour, among other things.
With these developments, we hope to strengthen our presence in the underpenetrated parts of India and establish ourselves as a preferred partner for our existing and prospective customers. By the end of the FY22, we anticipate that our customer base will have surpassed 10 million.
How DevSecOps enable discount brokerage cos like you to enable the freedom that you want to bring for the trader?
In any application or technology-based product offering, security plays an important role. DevSecOps is now a buzzword in the ‘DevOps Ecosystem’ that helps integrate application and infrastructure security seamlessly into Agile and DevOps processes and tools. Most of the outsourcing companies deploy the DevSecOps model to integrate security with the development. Thus, the magnitude of external security risks decreases.
DevOps is gaining high popularity as it helps ensure that organisations work faster than traditional software development models and processes, ensuring a work culture where development and operations teams work together and develop software. It automates a lot of processes that previously required a discussion. Since teams cannot congregate physically to address production issues we rely more on DevOps to make release management a highly process-driven approach.
Brokerage firms adopt DevSecOps because it helps accelerate transformation. The two main benefits are speed and security. Development teams deliver better, more secure code faster, and therefore is affordable.