Kotak’s superapp for investments hopes to gain one million users by end of the year

• Kotak Mahindra Bank today unveiled a new superapp for investments called Kotak Cherry.
  
• The new service will allow users to manage their investments across different instruments like equity, bonds, mutual funds and even pension schemes.
  
• Kotak says that eventually, other financial products like insurance, investment advisory service and more will be added to the platform.
  

Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of India’s leading banks, today launched a new product called Kotak Cherry. Although the name does not give it away, it’s a new investment service from one of India’s leading private banks.

Retail investors created millions of new demat accounts every month since the pandemic broke out in 2020, participating in India’s equity markets amid an unprecedented bull run.

Now, Kotak wants to bank on its name and capitalise on the interest in stock market investments.

“Led by a solid team of credible and experienced professionals, we believe deep domain experience will matter when it comes to investing. It is a one-stop platform that will help people invest like experts,” said Srikanth Subramanian, CEO-designate, Kotak Cherry, in an announcement today.

Superapp of investments

Unlike other services which have opted for breaking down their target audience based on the type of investment, for instance, equity, mutual funds, or deposits, Kotak says that its service is a one-stop destination for everything related to investments.

This means Kotak Cherry users will be able to do everything from deposits to stocks, bonds, mutual funds and even pension schemes.

Kotak’s service will also allow its users to manage their investments made on other banking and investment providers.

“Cherry will soon have complete open architecture, where the app user will soon be able to maintain their banking and broking relationships with providers of their choice, while still benefiting from the full power of our domain experience and curated services,” added Subramanian.

Kotak says that eventually, it will include other financial services like stock baskets a la Smallcase, life, medical and general insurance, and international investing, too.

It’s not clear if Kotak will achieve this via an API, or develop a custom solution that hooks into other platforms.

Free initially, but will be eventually chargeable, says Kotak

The Kotak Cherry service will remain free while it garners users – the bank has a target of one million users by the end of this year.

Eventually Kotak will announce a subscription model later. It refrained from specifying if every service on Kotak Cherry will need a subscription, or if only specific advisory-related services will be chargeable.

Kotak Cherry is currently available on Android and iOS, or via the web at Kotakcherry.com.

It remains to be seen if users are really interested in putting all their eggs into Kotak’s basket, but a one-stop-shop for investments may prove to be interesting.

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