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India’s largest stockbroker by revenue, Zerodha, is set to roll out US stock market investment options by the next quarter, founder and CEO Nithin Kamath has announced. “A lot of people tagged me on social media asking about US investing. We are working on it, and we should have something in the next quarter — it’s a product launch,” Kamath said during an Ask Me Anything session with the Zerodha founders and top management on YouTube. GIFT City Route Brings Regulatory Clarity Zerodha has long stayed away from offering US stock investment products, even as rivals such as Angel One, INDmoney, JM Financial, Axis Direct, HDFC Securities, Kuvera, and 5paisa already provide the service. “It has been a long-pending plan. We now have the requisite regulatory clarity through GIFT City, and we’re working to build a simple and seamless experience for users both on the backend and frontend,” said Zerodha CTO Kailash Nadh, adding that the team has been developing several new technology and product features for the launch. Profit Slump Amid Trading Slowdown The move comes at a time when Zerodha’s financial performance has weakened for the first time in over a decade. The brokerage reported a 15% decline in both revenue and profit in FY25, hurt by tighter regulations in the futures and options (F&O) segment. Net profit fell to Rs 4,200 crore from Rs 5,500 crore a year earlier, while revenue dropped to Rs 8,500 crore from Rs 10,000 crore. In its annual blog post, the company cautioned that FY26 could bring an even sharper 40% drop in revenue from FY24 levels. Not the First Attempt This isn’t Zerodha’s first effort to enable overseas investing. Back in 2020, Kamath had revealed plans to allow investment in US equities through a partner broker, but the rollout was delayed amid COVID-related disruptions and complex remittance rules. With the emergence of the GIFT City route, the process has become simpler and more compliant, making it feasible for Zerodha to finally introduce the product. How GIFT City Enables Global Investing Two main platforms in GIFT City currently enable international stock investing — India INX’s Global Access (a BSE subsidiary) and NSE IX’s US Stocks Unsponsored Depository Receipts (UDRs). Under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), GIFT City is treated as an international financial jurisdiction, similar to hubs like Dubai or Singapore. All financial services there — including banking, capital markets, and insurance — fall under the unified regulator, the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA). Regulatory Challenges for Peers Zerodha’s move comes after competitors faced hurdles in the cross-border investing space. Platforms such as Groww had to suspend onboarding for US stock investments in early 2024 due to remittance-related complexities and the 20% Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on investments exceeding Rs 7 lakh. Earlier, Indian brokers facilitated such investments either through tie-ups with US brokers or via mutual funds that invested abroad. However, several mutual funds later stopped accepting new subscriptions after hitting the RBI’s overseas investment limits — capped at $1 billion per fund house and $7 billion for the entire industry.
