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Building a Profitable Startup in India: Lessons from Fyers' Tejas Khoday

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  //business-finance.news-articles.net/content/202 .. up-in-india-lessons-from-fyers-tejas-khoday.html
  Published in Business and Finance on Monday, November 17th 2025 at 4:03 GMT by Business Today

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Building a Profitable Startup in India: Lessons from Fyers’ Tejas Khoday

In a recent interview with Business Today, Tejas Khoday, the charismatic founder‑CEO of the Indian brokerage platform Fyers, opened up about the secret sauce behind his company’s meteoric rise. Published on 17 November 2025, the article offers a concise yet insightful look at the principles that turned a modest startup into a market‑leading trading platform. Below is a comprehensive summary of the key takeaways, enriched with context from the broader Indian fintech landscape and links to Fyers’ own resources for further exploration.

1. From Idea to Execution – Khoday’s Personal Narrative

Tejas Khoday’s journey is emblematic of the modern Indian tech entrepreneur. With a background in engineering and a stint in product management at a multinational, he identified a pain point in the Indian brokerage space: high commissions and an opaque user experience. In 2017, he founded Fyers with a single goal – to democratize trading by offering zero‑commission equity and futures contracts coupled with a frictionless digital interface.

What sets Khoday apart, according to the interview, is his insistence on building a “product‑first, profit‑second” approach. Rather than chasing rapid monetisation, he prioritized product‑market fit, user acquisition, and platform reliability, which ultimately created a strong foundation for profitability.

2. The “Three Pillars” of a Profitable Startup

Khoday distilled his experience into three interlocking pillars that any aspiring founder should emulate:

3. Leveraging Technology for Scale

In the Indian market, technology is both an enabler and a differentiator. Khoday highlighted several tech choices that propelled Fyers to scale:

• Cloud‑Native Architecture: Migrating to a hybrid cloud environment helped maintain 99.99 % uptime during market volatility.
• Micro‑services & Containerization: This allowed the team to roll out new trading tools (e.g., algorithmic trading modules) without impacting core services.
• AI‑Driven Risk Management: Real‑time monitoring of trade volumes and margin usage helped curb liquidity risks and prevent regulatory breaches.

The interview referenced Fyers’ open‑source “Trade‑Engine” repository on GitHub, which serves as a learning resource for developers interested in building trading systems. (Link: https://github.com/fyerstech/trade-engine)

4. Monetisation Model Beyond Brokerage

While many startups chase high commissions, Fyers chose a diversified revenue mix:

1. Premium Subscriptions: Tiered plans (Basic, Pro, Elite) offering enhanced charting, algorithmic tools, and priority support.
2. Data Licensing: Selling anonymised market data to fintech partners and academic institutions.
3. Institutional Partnerships: Offering white‑label solutions and co‑branding with mutual funds and hedge funds.

Khoday stressed that profitability stems from having multiple, non‑cannibalising income streams. The company’s FY 2025 results showed a 35 % YoY increase in recurring revenue, a testament to this strategy.

5. Culture & Talent – The Human Factor

A startup’s success is ultimately tied to its people. Khoday shared that Fyers prioritised:

• Hiring for Fit, Not Just Skill: Emphasis on candidates who share the company’s vision of “making trading accessible.”
• Continuous Learning: Internal hackathons, tech talks, and sponsorship for advanced courses (e.g., Data Science, Cloud Engineering).
• Transparent Governance: Monthly town‑hall meetings where executives answer questions directly from staff, fostering a sense of ownership.

An anecdote from the interview illustrates this culture: a junior developer once pitched a UI overhaul that reduced average load time by 30 %. Management implemented it within weeks, crediting the employee publicly.

6. Funding & Financial Planning

Khoday’s fundraising journey began with a seed round in 2018, followed by Series A and B rounds in 2020 and 2022. He emphasizes that securing the right investors is about alignment of vision rather than sheer capital:

“Investors who understand the nuances of the brokerage ecosystem and can offer strategic guidance are worth more than those who simply dump money.”

To maintain financial discipline, Fyers adopted a quarterly “Financial Health Check” that assesses burn rate, runway, and revenue growth, ensuring that every decision is data‑driven.

7. Regulatory Landscape – Staying Ahead of the Curve

Operating in India’s heavily regulated capital markets, Khoday notes that compliance is non‑negotiable:

• Real‑Time Trade Reporting: Integrated with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) APIs to ensure instantaneous settlement.
• AML/KYC Automation: Leveraged OCR and AI for swift identity verification, cutting onboarding time from 3 days to 12 hours.
• Dynamic Margin Adjustments: Built-in algorithms that recalibrate margin requirements based on market volatility, mitigating systemic risk.

These efforts helped Fyers avoid regulatory fines and earned a reputation for reliability in a crowded marketplace.

8. Competitive Landscape & Differentiation

The Indian brokerage space hosts incumbents like Zerodha, Upstox, and Angel Broking, all competing on low cost. Khoday acknowledges that differentiation lies not just in price but in:

• Product Innovation: Fyers’ “Advanced Trading Toolkit” offers algorithmic trading, back‑testing, and risk analytics unheard of in many free‑tier platforms.
• User Experience: Simplified onboarding, a clean UI, and in‑app education modules for novice traders.
• Community Building: Fyers hosts monthly webinars featuring market analysts and offers mentorship programmes for traders.

According to the article’s footnote, Fyers now powers over 200,000 active traders and processes more than 300 million trades annually, a stark contrast to its competitors’ user base.

9. Future Outlook – Scaling Globally

Khoday’s next ambition is to extend Fyers’ services beyond India. The company is evaluating:

• Cross‑Border Trading APIs to enable Indian traders to access US and European markets.
• Partnerships with Global Exchanges such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) for futures access.
• Localization: Multi‑language support and region‑specific compliance modules to cater to emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

The interview’s underlying message is clear: profitability is achievable when a startup aligns its product vision, technology stack, and financial discipline while maintaining a relentless focus on the customer.

10. Takeaway for Aspiring Founders

Tejas Khoday’s journey underscores a few universal truths:

1. Start with a Problem, Not a Product – Build to solve a real pain point.
2. Iterate Rapidly, Scale Wisely – Use lean principles and data‑driven insights.
3. Diversify Revenue Early – Don’t rely solely on a single monetisation channel.
4. Cultivate a Strong Culture – People are your biggest asset.
5. Prioritise Compliance – Regulatory adherence protects the business and builds trust.

For those interested in digging deeper, Business Today links to Fyers’ investor deck (https://www.fyers.in/investor-deck) and the company’s annual report (https://www.fyers.in/annual-report-2025), both of which provide granular financials and strategic plans.

In conclusion, Fyers’ story, as told by Tejas Khoday, offers a blueprint for turning an ambitious idea into a profitable reality. By marrying customer obsession with technological innovation, disciplined finance, and a robust culture, the startup demonstrates that sustainability and growth can coexist even in a fiercely competitive sector. Aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from Fyers that profitability is not a destination but a continuous journey of learning, iteration, and relentless focus on value creation.