The journey of Dinesh Thakkar, chairperson of Angel One Ltd., in the financial world did not start in a plush office. It began at a paan shop, where he found his first two customers.
Born into a family of entrepreneurs, Thakkar initially joined his family's textile business, but strict restrictions left him restless. Looking for a way out, he borrowed money from friends and entered the stock market — only to see war tensions wipe out Rs 6 lakh in losses.
That setback, however, became the catalyst for his next move: launching his own broking business, the veteran revealed in an interview with NDTV Profit.
In the early days, brokerage was an old-school game, and customers struggled to find good brokers. Thakkar changed the landscape by offering real-time trade confirmations — a rarity at the time — using a walkie-talkie. But the road was not smooth. The Harshad Mehta scam pushed him into massive debt, a phase he overcame when three investors took a leap of faith and injected Rs 50 lakh each into his vision.
For Thakkar, investing should not be a privilege reserved for the wealthy. "Anyone with even Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 surplus a month should have access to the markets," he believes. Angel One grew with this philosophy—democratising financial services and adapting to evolving eras.
"We moved from a platform-first era to an intelligence-first era," he explains, predicting an autonomous era ahead, where AI-driven fund managers could put the collective wisdom of experts into every investor's hands.
Despite his keen eye for the future, Thakkar has had his share of impulsive splurges. His first big purchase? A black Fiat for Rs 2 lakh. Then came a Mercedes — a temptation he later curbed, abstaining from car purchases for a decade to focus on building his business.
Now, as he talks about the future of Angel One in the next 10 years, Thakkar is not just thinking about the present. He's imagining where customers will want to be — and ensuring his company gets there first.
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