In 2015, Nithin Kamath was busy making stockbroking cheaper. Mukesh Ambani, meanwhile, was preparing to make the internet cheaper for millions of Indians. Neither development appeared connected at the time, but the arrival of Jio would go on to transform the digital ecosystem that helped Zerodha grow and brought millions of new investors into India’s stock markets.
The connection went far beyond two entrepreneurs appearing on the same list. Jio’s affordable data, Airtel’s expanding connectivity, Aadhaar’s digital identity infrastructure and UPI’s payment network collectively changed the economics of reaching customers online.
Kamath revisited this history in a post on X, linking his experience as a young entrepreneur to the growth of India’s digital economy and the upcoming Jio IPO. His account offers a reminder that some of the biggest business success stories are built on infrastructure created by companies operating in entirely different industries.
The 2016 business ranking that put Kamath in Ambani’s company
The story began in 2015, when Jio was preparing to enter the telecom market. The following year, The Economic Times included Kamath among its 10 businessmen to watch. Ambani topped the list, while Kamath ranked sixth, following Zerodha’s decision to make delivery brokerage free.
Recalling his reaction, Kamath wrote:
“When Jio was getting ready to launch in 2015, I remember being petrified to find myself on this Economic Times list of 10 businessmen to watch in 2016. Mukesh Ambani was #1, and I was #6, mainly because we had just made delivery brokerage free. We were, and still are, ants compared to Reliance/Jio. 😅
Looking back, what’s phenomenal isn’t just how big it has become. It’s how much it has changed India and helped so many businesses start and grow.”
The expansion of affordable mobile internet brought millions of Indians online, enlarging the audience available to digital companies. Airtel also contributed to that transformation.
Kamath described Jio’s achievement in terms of its wider economic impact rather than its size alone.
For Zerodha, this change mattered because its business depended on customers being able to access financial services digitally. A competitive brokerage model could attract customers, but affordable connectivity helped make that model accessible to a much larger population.
How Jio, Aadhaar and UPI helped unlock India’s investing boom
India’s digital transformation required more than internet access. Customers needed ways to establish their identities, complete onboarding and transfer money conveniently. Aadhaar and UPI helped make these processes easier, complementing the connectivity provided by telecom operators.
Kamath credited this combination of infrastructure for helping Zerodha become the business it is today, highlighting that the company’s growth depended partly on developments beyond its own control
“We’ve been beneficiaries too. @Zerodha wouldn’t be what it is today without Aadhaar and UPI. But just as important was Jio, along with Airtel, bringing millions of Indians online with affordable data,” his tweet added.
Kamath connected this infrastructure to the expansion of India’s capital markets after the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that the effects extended well beyond individual companies.
“Together, all of this made the huge expansion of Indian capital markets after COVID possible. Without this digital infrastructure, many online-first businesses would be much smaller, and a lot of today’s consumer business models might not exist at all.”
He noted that the country had approximately 2 crore unique investors in 2016, compared with more than 13 crore at the time of his post. He attributed a significant part of the expansion to Jio’s role in bringing more Indians online. Kamath declined to give investors a recommendation on whether to apply, but highlighted the relationship between telecom connectivity, business growth and the capital markets.
“I can’t tell you whether to apply for the upcoming IPO. But both telcos have played a huge role in enabling an entire generation of Indian businesses like ours. And it’s nice that the capital markets they helped grow can now help Jio raise money,” he said.
From the outside, it’s easy to miss how much of our success depends on infrastructure built by others, he added.
For Kamath, the lesson extends beyond Zerodha or Reliance. Businesses develop their own products, pricing strategies and customer experiences, but their prospects are also shaped by the systems around them.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
