Nithin Kamath

Founder & CEO, Zerodha; Founder, Rainmatter at rainmatter

Reviewed Updated Jun 28, 2026

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Location Bengaluru, India
Check Size ₹50 lakh – ₹100 Cr (Rainmatter)
Last Verified Investment The Land Bankers (Seed) — Jun 22, 2026
Social @Nithin0dha LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed series-a series-b
Sector Focus
fintech climate climate-tech healthtech health-fitness media capital-markets

Background

Nithin Kamath (born October 5, 1979) is a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur best known as the founder and CEO of Zerodha, the discount brokerage he co-founded with his younger brother Nikhil Kamath in 2010 1. Before Zerodha, Nithin traded his father’s portfolio from age 17, worked as a senior tele-sales associate at a call centre while trading during the day, and operated a sub-broker franchise under the name Kamath Associates from 2004 to 2010 1. He holds a degree from Bangalore Institute of Technology 1.

Zerodha launched the ₹20-per-trade flat-fee model that displaced India’s traditional percentage-based broking structure and grew to roughly 1.5 crore (15M) customers without advertising while keeping headcount at ~1,200 employees 2. Nithin received the Forbes India Leadership Award in 2019 and was named among The Economic Times’ Top 10 Businessmen in India in 2016 1.

In 2016 he launched Rainmatter, the investing arm of Zerodha, originally framed as a fintech incubator and now an “initiative by the same people who brought you Zerodha” backing founders in fintech, climate, health, and media 34. Rainmatter is structured as a perennial vehicle with ₹1,000 Cr earmarked for investments, deploys cheques between ₹50 lakh and ₹100 Cr, and explicitly does not take board seats or impose exit timelines 34. The separate Rainmatter Foundation has committed $200M in grants for climate and environmental work 3. As of April 2026, Rainmatter had deployed approximately ₹1,500 Cr (~$180M) across 160+ startups 5.

Stated Thesis

Rainmatter’s official site states the thesis directly: “We back Indian founders that are working on helping Indians make better choices with their money and health… We back founders in fintech, climate, health, and media… We invest anywhere between ₹50 lakhs to ₹100 crores” 3.

Nithin frames Rainmatter as patient capital with no exit mandate. On the official Zerodha “Approaching a decade” retrospective, he wrote: “what is the use of all the money in the world if we keep destroying our health and polluting the one place we can call home?” 4. In a 2026 interview he reiterated: “We’re not a typical VC. We don’t take board seats, and we’re not in this for quick exits… our approach has been simple: be patient, back founders for the long term” 5.

He also publicly describes his evaluation lens as founder-first rather than market-first: “At the end of the day, you’re betting on the person. You’re betting on the founders of the company” 6.

Inferred Thesis

The official Rainmatter portfolio page lists 146 companies grouped as 45 Climate (30.8%), 41 Health & Fitness (28.1%), 37 Fintech (25.3%), 15 Other (10.3%), and 8 Media (5.5%) 7. This breakdown — counted from the firm’s own portfolio page — is the cleanest data available and matches the stated thesis category set (fintech, climate, health, media) but reveals two patterns the stated thesis under-emphasizes:

  • Climate has overtaken fintech as the largest category. The stated thesis lists fintech first (and Rainmatter began as a fintech-only fund 8), but actual deployment now skews climate-heaviest. The Z-Connect retrospective for 2024 alone shows ₹120 Cr deployed into 15 climate deals — the single largest sector spend of that year 9.
  • Health & Fitness is nearly as large as fintech. With 41 portfolio companies, it sits within three of fintech’s 37 count, despite less marketing emphasis. The 2024 cohort included 16 healthcare deals 9.

Round size: bimodal. Rainmatter writes both small seed cheques (e.g., ₹6 Cr lead in The Land Bankers, June 2026 10) and large follow-on cheques (e.g., ₹56 Cr Pre-Series A lead in Karo Sambhav, June 2026 11; ₹25 Cr in Agilitas’s ₹225 Cr round, June 2026 12). The stated ₹50 lakh–₹100 Cr range plays out in practice as two distinct behaviours: small first cheques and concentrated follow-ons in existing portfolio companies or aligned theses.

Lead behaviour. Where data is available in 2024-2026 rounds, Rainmatter frequently leads or anchors: lead investor in Karo Sambhav (Pre-Series A) 11, lead in The Land Bankers (seed) 10, primary funder in TruNativ and Boson Whitewater (₹10 Cr each, September 2024) 13, and first institutional investor in Capitalmind (Series A, August 2025) 1415. Rainmatter is more often a lead/co-lead than a passive participant.

Geographic concentration. Almost exclusively India-headquartered companies, consistent with the stated mission of helping Indians manage money and health 3.

Governance pattern (verified, unusual). Rainmatter explicitly does not take board seats. Nithin wrote on Z-Connect: “We thus avoid taking board seats or being involved in the operations of businesses that we partner with, and instead, we help, mentor, and collaborate” 16. The Capitalmind investment was structured with stake capped at 10% per SEBI norms, with no board seat — explicitly to preserve Capitalmind’s independence 15.

Sample size note: the 146-company breakdown is sourced from Rainmatter’s own portfolio page; this is the inferred-thesis denominator. The specific 2024-2026 round-level details below are individual verified deals that illustrate the pattern but are a small fraction of total deal flow.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
The Land Bankers 2026-06-22 Seed (led ₹6 Cr of ₹8 Cr round) 10
Karo Sambhav 2026-06-18 Pre-Series A (led ₹56 Cr) 11
Agilitas 2026-06 Growth (₹25 Cr in ₹225 Cr round w/ Nexus Venture Partners) 12
PrimeInvestor 2026-04-21 First external round (led ₹19.5 Cr / ~$2M) 17
Capitalmind Financial Services 2025-08-07 Series A (first institutional; ~10% stake cap) 1415
Boson Whitewater 2024-09-04 Growth (₹10 Cr) 13
TruNativ 2024-09-04 Growth (₹10 Cr) 13
Jupiter (Amica Financial) 2019 Seed (participated alongside Matrix, Sequoia, others) 18
smallcase 2016 Backed via Rainmatter (early portfolio company) 197

Note: This table lists only individual rounds with verifiable dates and primary-source citations. Rainmatter’s official portfolio page lists 146 companies in total across fintech, climate, health & fitness, media, and other categories — including Sensibull, Streak, Ditto, Quicko, M2P Fintech, Wint Wealth, Epifi, GoldenPi, Hissa, Indus, and IndiaDataHub among the fintech tier 7. Investment dates for these portfolio entries are not published on the official page; aggregate counts and sector percentages in the Inferred Thesis section are computed from the full portfolio page.

In Their Own Words

“We’re not a typical VC. We don’t take board seats, and we’re not in this for quick exits… our approach has been simple: be patient, back founders for the long term.”

— Nithin Kamath, on Rainmatter’s investing model, April 2026 5

“Rainmatter started in 2016… Nine years later, it has grown into something far bigger than we ever imagined.”

— Nithin Kamath, April 2026 5

“what is the use of all the money in the world if we keep destroying our health and polluting the one place we can call home?”

— Nithin Kamath, on the rationale for shifting Rainmatter’s emphasis toward climate and health, “Approaching a decade” Z-Connect post, 2024 4

“We thus avoid taking board seats or being involved in the operations of businesses that we partner with, and instead, we help, mentor, and collaborate.”

— Nithin Kamath, on Rainmatter’s governance philosophy, Z-Connect, August 2023 16

“At the end of the day, you’re betting on the person. You’re betting on the founders of the company.”

— Nithin Kamath, Outlook Business interview, February 2025 6

“We want to back innovative companies that share our mission of helping Indians do better with their money.”

— Nithin Kamath, on the Capitalmind investment, August 2025 15

“It is sometimes surreal how life comes full circle. Deepak Shenoy was among the first people I spoke to about the idea of Zerodha. When we started, he agreed to lend his credibility by having his name on our website as an advisor.”

— Nithin Kamath, on backing Capitalmind, August 2025 14

What Founders Say

“Having Rainmatter invest in our vision validates our evolution from a blog to a full-stack asset manager.”

— Deepak Shenoy, CEO of Capitalmind, on accepting Rainmatter’s first institutional investment, August 2025 15

Beyond Shenoy’s statement, no other independently sourced founder testimonials specifically about working with Nithin Kamath or Rainmatter were located in this research pass. Coverage of Rainmatter’s investments is largely transactional (round announcements, valuation data) rather than founder-experience reporting; further dedicated outreach would be needed to surface portfolio-founder testimonials at scale.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, “Nithin Kamath,” accessed June 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nithin_Kamath↩↩↩↩

  2. Outlook Business interview, “Nithin Kamath Interview: At the End of the Day, You Bet on Founders,” February 2, 2025. https://www.outlookbusiness.com/magazine/nithin-kamath-interview-at-the-end-of-the-day-you-bet-on-founders↩↩

  3. Rainmatter, official homepage (firm self-description and check-size range), accessed June 2026. https://rainmatter.com/↩↩↩↩↩

  4. Zerodha Z-Connect, “Approaching a decade,” 2024-2025 retrospective on Rainmatter, accessed June 2026. https://zerodha.com/z-connect/rainmatter/approaching-a-decade↩↩↩↩

  5. Entrepreneur India, “Zerodha’s Rainmatter Invests INR 1,500 Cr Across 160+ Startups: Nithin Kamath,” April 13, 2026. https://www.entrepreneurindia.com/blog/en/news/zerodhas-rainmatter-invests-inr-1500-cr-across-160-startups-nithin-kamath.59855↩↩↩↩

  6. See 2 (same Outlook Business interview). ↩↩

  7. Rainmatter, official portfolio page (146 companies; sector counts), accessed June 2026. https://rainmatter.com/portfolio/↩↩↩

  8. YourStory, “Rainmatter — bootstrapped Zerodha’s entry into the fintech ecosystem,” July 2016. https://yourstory.com/2016/07/rainmatter↩

  9. Business Today, “‘We are in it for the long term…’: Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath reveals where he is placing his boldest bets” (2024 sector breakdown: ₹120 Cr climate / 15 deals, 16 healthcare deals, ₹70 Cr fintech / 8 deals), January 8, 2025. https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/corporate/story/we-are-in-it-for-the-long-term-zerodhas-nithin-kamath-reveals-where-he-is-placing-his-boldest-bets-460032-2025-01-08↩↩

  10. Entrackr, “Exclusive: Rainmatter, Kunal Shah back NestAway co-founder’s new startup The Land Bankers,” June 22, 2026. https://entrackr.com/exclusive/exclusive-rainmatter-kunal-shah-back-nestaway-co-founders-new-startup-the-land-bankers-12062135↩↩↩

  11. Entrackr, “Karo Sambhav raises Rs 56 Cr in pre-Series A round led by Rainmatter,” June 18, 2026. https://entrackr.com/snippets/karo-sambhav-raises-rs-56-cr-in-pre-series-a-round-led-by-rainmatter-12050427↩↩↩

  12. YourStory, “Agilitas gets Rs 225 Cr funding from Nexus Venture, Rainmatter,” June 2026. https://yourstory.com/2026/06/agilitas-gets-225-crore-funding-nexus-venture-rainmatter-zerodha↩↩

  13. Indian Startup News, “Zerodha’s Rainmatter invests Rs 10 crore each in Boson Whitewater, TruNativ; Check details,” September 4, 2024. https://indianstartupnews.com/funding/rainmatter-invests-rs-10-crore-each-in-boson-whitewater-trunativ-6948↩↩↩

  14. Business Today, “‘Life comes full circle’: Nithin Kamath invests in the company whose CEO helped Zerodha in its initial days,” August 7, 2025. https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/life-comes-full-circle-nithin-kamath-invests-in-the-company-whose-ceo-helped-zerodha-in-its-initial-days-488289-2025-08-07↩↩↩

  15. Entrepreneur India, “Capitalmind Receives Strategic Investment from Rainmatter Following Mutual Fund Launch,” August 7, 2025. https://india.entrepreneur.com/news-and-trends/capitalmind-receives-strategic-investment-from-rainmatter/495573↩↩↩↩↩

  16. Zerodha Z-Connect, “Rainmatter – Perennial investments,” August 9, 2023. https://zerodha.com/z-connect/rainmatter/rainmatter-perennial-investments↩↩

  17. Entrackr, “Zerodha backed Rainmatter invests in wealth tech startup PrimeInvestor,” April 2026. https://entrackr.com/news/zerodha-backed-rainmatter-invests-in-wealth-tech-startup-primeinvestor-11750659↩

  18. Entrackr, “Jitendra Gupta led Jupiter raises $24 Mn seed round at $70 Mn valuation,” November 2019. https://entrackr.com/2019/11/jitendta-guptas-jupiter-raises-24-mn-seed-fund/↩

  19. smallcase blog, “Fintech Forward: Vasanth Kamath in conversation with Nithin Kamath,” April 13, 2022. https://www.smallcase.com/blog/fintech-forward-vasanth-kamath-in-conversation-with-nithin-kamath/↩