Billionbrains Garage Ventures Q2 FY27 Earnings Call: MTF Book Adds Rs. 600-700 Cr Per Quarter, Wealth Users Jump 50% QoQ (GROWW)

Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd held its Q2 FY27 earnings call on October 14, 2026. Here's a quick read of what management said — performance, strategy, and the outlook ahead.

A Volatile Quarter Marked by One-Off Cost Items

• Rs.10-13 crore one-time hit — cost to serve in Q2 FY 2026-2027 absorbed a one-off charge from a file delay on an expiry day, alongside AI-related costs and higher compute costs on more trading days.
• Employee cost fell to Rs.169 Cr — down from Rs.182 Cr in Q1 FY 2026-2027, attributed to normalization post-appraisal cycle and headcount changes; management guided that structurally the cost is expected to increase.
• ~30 IPOs in the quarter — management attributed Q2 FY 2026-2027 growth in other operating income to IPO activity (incl. SBI AMC, NSC) and BSDA income accruals.
• Cost to grow declined QoQ — Q2 FY 2026-2027 benefited from the absence of an IPL branding event that had impacted Q1 FY 2026-2027; management cited cost to grow and cost to serve as independent.
• No financial guidance in opening/closing — the 45-minute call (CEO Lalit Keshre, CFO Ishan Bansal, Group Head Finance Lalit Bhimani, Head IR Shiv Talam) offered no headline outlook in its opening or closing segments.

Share Gap Between Clients and Turnover Seen Converging Over a Decade

• ~23-24% NSE active client share — versus ~15% cash market share and ~11% derivatives share in Q2 FY 2026-2027.
• ~10 years to full convergence — management expects cash and derivatives market share to converge toward NSE active client levels over the long term as customer tenure and MTF penetration increase.
• Broking revenue de-linked from ADTV — CFO Ishan Bansal stated commodities and equity derivatives broking is 100% linked to orders (at Rs.20 per order) in Q2 FY 2026-2027; cash pricing is 10 basis points or Rs.20 (whichever is lower), yielding ~Rs.15-16 brokerage per order.
• August was the weakest month — for order intensity among July, August and September within Q2 FY 2026-2027.
• Order-per-ADTV mix effect — the CFO attributed the Q2 FY 2026-2027 increase to asset classes traded (gold vs. crude in commodities; ETFs vs. small/mid cap in cash), which carry different ticket sizes.
• Active user definition changed — the count now includes FISdom users, potentially affecting comparability with prior quarter disclosures.

MTTF Book Growing; Risk Controls Tightened Post Q4 FY26 One-Off

• Rs.600-700 Cr added per quarter — management guided MTF book additions at this run-rate in FY 2026-2027, expecting continued growth on customer under-penetration and market share.
• MTF at slightly above 5% of cash turnover — in Q2 FY 2026-2027, boosted by high market volatility; management expects the ratio to trend up with book growth but cautioned it is variable and dependent on market churn, not strictly proportional.
• Haircuts up to 80% — after a one-off cost in Q4 FY 2025-2026, management strengthened MTF policies with real-time execution, industry-level book monitoring, and funding only 20% for high-risk stocks; no one-off cost occurred in Q2 FY 2026-2027.
• LAS launched with good traction — the Loan Against Shares product was launched in the last two quarters (Q1 and Q2 FY 2026-2027); the Personal Loan business continues to grow gradually QoQ.
• Float income unchanged — no optimization change in Q2 FY 2026-2027, as own treasury returns are market-driven and customer wallet investments are restricted by SEBI/Exchange to specific fixed deposits.
• Daily underwriting realignment — MTF stock-level haircuts are continuously realigned, with further optimizations in the pipeline.

In-House AI Stack; Product Depth Over Price Competition

• In-house AI stack for FY 2026-2027 — management outlined building proprietary AI to lower per-token costs versus commercial alternatives, targeting shipping speed, product quality and customer experience; revenue is viewed as a downstream outcome of improved customer experience.
• Over 50% of customers use 2+ products — and over 5% use more than 4 products as of Q2 FY 2026-2027; management emphasized a customer-need-centric model rather than solely pushing product penetration.
• US stocks still in beta — positive feedback but no timeline for full launch; the pipeline also includes MF Prime and integration of the acquired company's products.
• 9.15 power trading platform immaterial — not a significant contributor to volume, market share or revenue in Q2 FY 2026-2027; management guided it is expected to accelerate power-trader share growth upon achieving strong PMF, but PMF has not yet been proven (period unspecified).
• 9.15 targets external traders — the strategy is to attract power traders from competing platforms rather than graduating existing internal customers.
• Customer focus over price competition — management emphasized AI-driven features rather than pricing as the competitive lever.

Gro Prime Drives Wealth User Growth; Cost-to-Grow Range Held at Rs.400-500 Cr

• Wealth management users up ~50% QoQ — in Q2 FY 2026-2027, driven primarily by Gro Prime; MF Prime remains small but is the fastest-growing.
• No AUM breakdown disclosed — wealth management revenue is classified under other operating income.
• ~Rs.125 Cr per quarter in H1 FY 2026-2027 — average cost-to-grow spend; Q3 FY 2026-2027 spending may exceed or fall short of this run-rate depending on market conditions, within an annual guided range of Rs.400-500 Cr.
• Cash removal seen as normalization — management expects the removal of cash to normalize the disruption it caused rather than drive a significant volume increase, with the effect on future volatility remaining uncertain.

SEBI Circular and UPI MDR Are the Key Watch Items

• SEBI circular seen as non-material for derivatives — management expects the 100% VWAP / weighted average circular will not significantly impact derivatives as a segment; it is awaiting the effective date and expects volume normalization to accelerate from that date.
• UPI MDR impact immaterial for FY 2026-2027 — pending SEBI's final rate (discussed range: 0.4% vs 0.02% for capital markets) and capping (discussed range: Rs.300 vs Rs.5).
• High Rs.300 capping flagged as key risk — management cited a high capping of Rs.300 as a key risk for the company and the customer.
• MDR liability sits with MF houses — for lump sum mutual fund investments, the liability lies with the mutual fund house, not the company, for FY 2026-2027.
• Broking transacting users not disclosed — management declined to give the Q1 FY 2026-2027 figure, guiding analysts to the Q2U metric for Q2 FY 2026-2027 as a better proxy for broking activity.
• Next checkpoint: Q3 FY 2026-2027 call — management directed shareholders to the IR website for follow-up questions and expects to reconvene for the Q3 FY 2026-2027 earnings call.