How StockGro Is Building An Intelligence Layer For India’s Next 100 Mn Investors

India's retail investing boom has created a knowledge gap. Millions of first-time investors now have easy access to the stock market, but many still lose money because they lack the knowledge to invest or trade effectively

StockGro, founded by Ajay Lakhotia, aims to bridge this gap through expert-backed advisory, AI and strategy testing, giving access to traders and investors to institutional-grade research and tech

In a candid conversation with Inc42, Lakhotia also talked about its AI engine, Stoxo, which is designed to deliver explainable market research and improve investment decision-making

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“Tried everything under the sun… but nothing worked. Good weeks were usually followed by disastrous ones,” wrote marginmemos, an anonymous Reddit user who shared verified proof of losing more than ₹50 Lakh in futures and options trading. 

Unfortunately, this isn’t a one-off incident. According to SEBI, nine out of every 10 retail investors who trade in F&Os close a losing bet.

Ironically, this is happening at a time when India’s retail investing story is being celebrated like never before, with demat accounts multiplying, broker app downloads at an all-time high, and millions of first-time investors entering the stock market. 

Besides, options trading volumes have surged to such levels that the government raised the securities transaction tax on F&O twice in two years, in 2024 and again in 2026, to curb speculative trading.

But it does not mean that people completely understand what they’re trading. This is also because the infrastructure for trading has scaled faster than the infrastructure for understanding and learning the technicalities of trading. 

A 21-year-old today can open a demat account in minutes, get intraday leverage within the hour, and place an options bet by evening, all without ever being asked whether he understands what theta (the rate at which an options contract loses its value as it gets closer to its expiration date) decay does to a Thursday expiry. This gap, between access and judgement, is where Ajay Lakhotia says he found his opportunity with StockGro, an investment advisory platform. 

“I was watching an entire generation getting unprecedented access to public markets and building conviction on borrowed ideas from social media, friends, relatives, and whoever sounded confident,” said Lakhotia. 

In 2020, Lakhotia founded StockGro as an investment advisory........

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