Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath has put out a call for entrepreneurs building "radical" or "strange" ideas in fintech, saying his venture fund Rainmatter is doubling down on the sector as artificial intelligence threatens to fundamentally reshape how people trade and invest.
In a post on X, Kamath said that while trading and investing platforms have grown vastly better looking, faster and richer in features over the years, the underlying act, placing an order through a broker that then reaches an exchange, has barely changed.
If you think about it, trading and investing have changed a lot on the surface, but the fundamental act has remained more or less the same.
— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) August 20, 2026
Platforms look better. They are easier to use. There is more information, more data, more products, and far better tools. But underneath…
He said the question he and his team at Zerodha and Rainmatter keep returning to is whether this will hold true going forward, given that AI is changing how software is built and used, alongside evolving market structures, new asset classes and technologies such as tokenisation and prediction markets.
Kamath said he would not be surprised if brokers eventually became little more than a pipe connecting customers to exchanges, with users instead interacting with markets through a personal, AI-built interface rather than a broker's own app.
A detailed blog post on Rainmatter's website, dated July 27, expanded on this thinking, tracing how Indian trading platforms converged on largely similar designs after Zerodha's Kite became an industry benchmark following its 2013 launch.
ALSO READ: 'This Is Huge': Nithin Kamath Lauds SEBI Move To Remove Key Hurdle For NRI Investors
The post noted that while over 60-70% of retail trading volumes now originate on smartphones, the core behaviour, research followed by a buy or sell decision, has stayed constant even as tools have multiplied.
What feels different this time, the post argued, is that large language models are producing genuinely new trading behaviours, with users building personal tools and even automated trading agents using platforms like Claude and ChatGPT, aided by the Model Context Protocol that lets people interact with brokers through AI tools rather than dedicated apps.
Kamath said Rainmatter, which began in 2016 backing fintech founders before expanding into health, climate and manufacturing, would now refocus heavily on fintech.
He was explicit about what the fund is not seeking: another dashboard with "blinking green lights," an options visualisation tool, or public data repackaged into a prettier interface. Instead, he said Rainmatter wants founders "fundamentally rethinking how people might trade and invest in the future," inviting those building something "radical, strange, or even a little crazy" to reach out.
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
