Zerodha has seen a near-tenfold growth in women using its platform in about a decade, but there’s a unique trend that piqued Nithin Kamath’s interest.

“I still remember that around 2014-15, only 2-3% of our customers were women. Today, that number is about 30%,” the chief executive officer of India’s largest brokerage said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

To understand more, Kamath ran a small survey.

Roughly 50% of the women use their accounts on their own, while the rest have their accounts managed by someone else—most often a male.

“The fact that half of the accounts are self-managed is a good start, but this needs to change significantly,” the CEO said. “We’re trying to encourage more women to take charge of their finances…”

To be sure, Kamath’s findings hold up—more or less.

According to NSE data, as of August 2024, 22% of all stock market investors in India were women. By December, women constituted 25% of all new investors. As of June 2025, the participation of women investors had risen to 28.4% in Maharashtra and 27.6% in Gujarat, as against a national average of 24.5%, according to NSE data cited by The Times of India.

Women are increasingly in-charge of their own finances too.

According to an Axis Mutual Fund study from 2024, 72% women are making their own financial decisions, up from 48% in 2022, according to a Livemint report.

SEBI For Women

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning additional financial incentives for distributors and fund houses to enroll first-time women investors, according to its chairperson.

“We are proposing additional incentives…for first-time investors,” SEBI Chairperson Tuhin Kanta Pandey said during an event organised by the Association of Mutual Funds in India in Mumbai on 22 August. According to AMFI, 33% of total assets under management in India were held by women as of March 2024.