Prateek Jain, Co Founder & President, Winvesta highlights that FAANG stocks constitute close to 17% of the platform's AUM, but this ratio has been trending lower as newer themes have picked up interest.

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Before Winvesta, Prateek worked with Deutsche Bank for 11 years, across Singapore and New York. He ran the global energy trading book for Deutsche, building several new businesses and revenue streams.

Edited excerpts from his interview with Zeebiz’s Kshitij Anand.

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Q) What is the kind of growth you have seen on your platform with regards to the number of investors investing abroad on a YoY basis? Has the trend picked up since pandemic back in March 2020?

A) Winvesta started offering the brokerage account last year in May. Over the last 12 months, the number of investors on the platform have grown by over 500%. The same number over the last six months stands at 125%.

Q) Which are the top 10 stocks where Indian investors are most bullish on?

A) The top 10 stock holdings currently on our platform are: Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA), Amazon (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Nio (NIO), NVIDIA (NVDA), AirBnb (ABNB), and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Q) US has also seen a flurry of IPOs – what is the kind of response you have seen from Indian markets?

A) Indian investors cannot participate in the IPO process. Having said that, we have seen a keen interest from investors who wish to buy the stock as soon as it lists.

Many remittances even take place well in advance so that they are prepared to invest. Most popular IPOs are available on Winvesta shortly after they start trading in the public markets.

The AirBnb IPO has been the most popular IPO on our platform till date and even remains among the top 10 holdings. IPOs of Snowflake, Freshworks, and Robinhood also saw strong investor interest.

Q) Apart from stocks which ETFs a popular source, and what is the kind of money you are seeing flowing into this product category?

A) ETFs form about 13% of the AUM invested through the platform. The top 10 ETFs on our platform are TQQQ, VTI, QQQ, ARKG, ARKK, SOXX, SPY, QCLN, ARKQ, and FINX.

Q) Any new initiatives which you have undertaken to give ease of doing business?

A) We have introduced several investor-friendly features in the app like good faith violation alerts, analyst ratings, and stock categorization for easier discovery, etc.

Winvesta also provides one of the cheapest withdrawals back to India so investors don’t treat these funds as illiquid assets.

We are also working on making transferring funds to the US account easier by reducing the cost and time of transfer.

Q) Most people know about FAANGs, which include Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet (formerly known as Google). What does the data suggest with respect to the kind of money invested in this theme? Are there more themes coming up especially after COVID?

A) FAANG stocks constitute close to 17% of the platform's AUM. However, this ratio has been trending lower as newer themes have picked up interest.

Over the last 12 months, investors have chosen to bet on themes like Semiconductors, electric mobility, and blockchain.

Q) Which are the documents one requires to make an investment in US stocks and how much time does it take for the system to be up and running?

A) The onboarding process on Winvesta is very simple. Investors can sign up digitally in minutes using their PAN and Aadhaar card. After that they can fund their accounts using online banking.

The funds get credited to the account within a few hours in most cases. Once the funds are in the account, investors can start investing and choose from 4500+ US stocks and ETFs.

So, someone who downloads the app in the morning can start making investments as soon as the same day.

Disclaimer: The views/suggestions/advice expressed here in this article are solely by investment experts. Zee Business suggests its readers to consult with their investment advisers before making any financial decision.