We’re happy to announce that Stockal is now ready to on-board Indian investors who wish to invest in global financial markets – starting with US stock markets.
So, if you have been thinking about diversifying your investments internationally, or saving-up to prepare for your kids’ overseas education, or wondering how you can get your hands on some shares of Netflix (payback on the binge watching!) – this the moment you’ve been waiting for. And we are doing our best to make it as easy as investing locally would be, for you. Everything is digitized. Right from opening a US brokerage account, to moving money into your brokerage account from your local bank account, to buying/selling and withdrawing money back to your bank – it’s all seamless and straightforward.
Solving India-specific problems
We’ve spent over a year identifying and solving for India-specific problems in the space. Two issues that have always made it tough for people to consider overseas investing have been – opening a US brokerage account with Indian KYC and all the offline work thats needed to be done for sending money overseas. These and other issues have traditionally made investing exorbitantly expensive. But with Stockal – it’s all much simpler; and therefore patently affordable.
Given we had spent a significant amount of time working with retail investors and brokerages in the US, we understood that problem really well. And we’ve chosen our US partners carefully. We had much less experience working with Indian banking, though. But as things stand, we now have 6 of India’s most prominent banks with whom we have co-developed logistic solutions to make sure investors don’t have to do anything offline while sending money out. And while we’re at it, we get you great forex rates as well – saving you money right off-the-bat.
This is just the beginning
Our larger mission is to completely democratize investing. Why should one save (or invest) money locally only! Why should one limit one’s investment assets to only those that are commonly available! Especially since our global exposure to products, places, learning and experiences is at an all-time-high these days.
So, on Stockal, over the next 2-3 months you will see products like globally diversified, readymade, portfolios, markets like Germany, Japan, and UK, and new asset classes like global bonds, options and mutual funds.
You will also see Stockal welcoming users from Middle Eastern countries almost immediately. And then some of the Asian countries which have a growing youthful population and increasing per capita wealth – but very limited investing options.
And then there are a couple more, super interesting, things that we will talk about when the time is right.
You’ll be seeing more of us
While Stockal has gone live and you can open an account right away, you will soon start seeing Stockal in venues (platforms and apps) you are already comfortable with. Keep an eye out!
Sitashwa & Vinay
