Stock trading platform Sahi, founded by former Swiggy CTO Dale Vaz and ex-Kotak Securities executive Manish Jain, has secured $10.5 million in funding, with Accel and Elevation Capital leading the round.
The Bengaluru-based startup will utilize the funds to drive product innovation, focusing particularly on automation, in response to Sebi’s move to enable algorithmic trading for retail investors.
Sahi also aims to grow its team and expand its footprint across India, targeting a broader base of active traders.
As part of its growth strategy, Sahi plans to introduce a suite of new automation tools, including visual no-code strategy builders and multi-leg options execution features. The company is also preparing to launch its trading website this week, extending its services beyond the current mobile and desktop platforms.
This expansion comes on the heels of a significant regulatory shift—Sebi recently approved algorithmic trading for retail investors, with the new rules set to take effect on August 1, 2025. Until now, only institutional investors were allowed to use algorithmic trading, which involves automated programs that execute trades based on predefined strategies.
“Sahi began with the intent of helping the individual investor. We focus on people interested in making their own financial decisions, both as investors and even as traders. The idea is to build this as a single, end-to-end product, which will cover the entire trader journey,” Vaz said.
Launched in December 2024, Sahi delivers a chart-first trading experience, equipped with features like real-time Greeks, open interest tracking, technical indicators, and one-click trade execution. It uses AI-powered insights to help individual traders make more data-driven decisions.
The stock trading platform has gained significant traction, with over 200,000 app downloads and a 50% month-on-month growth in active traders. According to the company, more than 20% of users have executed over 500 trades within just five months, and over half have placed more than 100 trades.
By operating with a lean team and leveraging AI-based infrastructure, the stock trading claims to offer brokerage rates nearly 50% lower than larger competitors—charging just Rs 10 per trade, according to co-founder Dale Vaz.
Manasi Shah, vice president at Accel, said, “The future of trading globally is going to be disrupted by AI, and Sahi is racing ahead to be the best-in-class AI-led trading platform. As Accel, we are excited to double down on Sahi as part of our thesis that AI will disrupt consumer experiences across verticals.”
While acknowledging some short-term impact from recent regulatory curbs on futures and options (F&O) trading, Vaz remains optimistic about long-term prospects. “We are extremely bullish about the larger financialization of the Indian wealth story that is playing out and which will continue to play out, in our belief, over the next 5-10 years at least,” he said.
“Existing tech-first brokers have solved customer access to markets really well, but as users and technology have both matured significantly, there is an opportunity to reimagine the entire experience from the ground up,” said Vaas Bhaskar, partner at Elevation Capital. “We believe that Dale and Manish are building with deep customer obsession and have built a never-before-seen broking experience, combining all parts of the trader’s journey—research, execution, and post-trade.”
