Raghu Kumar

HIGHLIGHTS

•Serial entrepreneur

•Associated with active trading and investing since the age of 16

•Remains largest individual shareholder of Upstox, a Tiger Global-backed $3.5B unicorn

•Stepped down from the operational team at Upstox in 2019, took a long sabbatical, and started Rain Platforms as a way to massively disrupt the financial markets; Rain launched its flagship product, TradingLeagues

•TradingLeagues crossed 1M users in India, now launches global edition

Raghu is a serial entrepreneur and has been obsessed with the financial markets since the age of 16. After graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he started his first company in 2006 - RK Trading Partnership - a proprietary trading company that actively traded the forex markets. He was able to turn $10k into more than $2M over a span of two years using low-latency, news trading strategies.

Using the profits, he moved to India in 2008 – along with two other co-founders – and setup RKSV Securities, a retail stock brokerage, which eventually rebranded into Upstox. RKSV was also a proprietary trading firm and actively traded India’s stock markets, and Raghu led the prop desk division. After Upstox raised its Series A, the prop desk was shut down, and Raghu transitioned into a traditional co-founder role.

In 2019, he stepped down from the Board of Upstox and left all operational duties, but remains Upstox’s largest individual shareholder. He took a long sabbatical, moved back to the US, and started thinking about his next venture. He wanted to create a new, bolder company, which could massively disrupt the financial markets at a larger scale than a typical stock brokerage.

In 2020, he incorporated Rain Platforms. After his co-founders Harsh and Kanishk joined, the trio started developing TradingLeagues, a disruptive, gamified offering for the financial markets. The goal behind TradingLeagues is to massively increase awareness and engagement with the financial markets at a global level by leveraging gamification. TradingLeagues launched in India in Dec 2022 and amassed more than 1M users. The global edition of TradingLeagues launches in Nov 2023.

Raghu oversees business growth at Rain Platforms. In his free time, he loves playing chess, being involved with his two young boys, and finding ways to keep his mind sharp.