Sharan Hegde and Raghav Gupta, co-founders of 1% Club.
While India’s financial education space was filled with free YouTube tips and paid stock tips, Sharan Hegde built a membership community that charges for real financial planning and Nikhil Kamath’s fund backed it.
Topic tags: Fintech • Financial Education • Creator Startup • Indian Startup Story • Forbes 30 Under 30
The 1% Club raised Rs 10 crore from Gruhas, the venture capital fund backed by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath (Entrepreneur India, 2025). Furthermore, it received a SEBI Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) licence in February 2025 (Tracxn, 2026). Today, the platform has over 1 million users and a team of 200 people. Sharan Hegde built all of this after failing to get into IIT, failing to get promoted at his consulting job, and dropping out of Columbia Business School.
The Story: Three Setbacks and One Company
Sharan Hegde was born on July 15, 1995, in Mangalore, Karnataka. His family ran a restaurant. During summers as a child, he stood at the cash counter and asked questions about transactions. That early curiosity about money never left him.
He studied mechanical engineering at R.V. College of Engineering, Bengaluru. After graduating in 2018, he became a management consultant. Two years later, he worked hard for a promotion. He got a 5% raise instead. No promotion. Then he attempted CAT 2021 to get into IIM Bangalore. He did not make it. He secured admission to Columbia Business School for an MBA. However, in August 2022, he dropped out to focus on Finance With Sharan full-time (Chahra, April 2026).
Each of these setbacks pushed him toward content creation. Consequently, Finance With Sharan was born. He began simplifying personal finance using humour, pop culture references, and relatable analogies. His audience grew fast. Moreover, he built something most finance creators did not a real company underneath the content.
People Also Ask
What is The 1% Club? The 1% Club is a paid membership community for financial education founded by Sharan Hegde and Raghav Gupta in early 2022. It offers masterclasses, investment guidance, tax planning, and an AI-first personal finance app. As of 2026, it has 1M+ users and a 200-person team (Tracxn, 2026).
Who is Sharan Hegde? Sharan Hegde is the co-founder and CEO of The 1% Club. He is also known as Finance With Sharan, India’s most followed personal finance creator with 1 crore+ followers across Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. He was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2023 (Entrepreneur India, 2025).
How much funding has The 1% Club raised? The 1% Club raised $1.2M in total, including Rs 10 crore from Gruhas — the VC fund backed by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath (Tracxn, 2026).
What is the RIA licence and why does it matter? A SEBI Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) licence allows The 1% Club to legally offer personalised financial advice and planning services in India. The 1% Club received this licence in February 2025, significantly expanding what it can offer members beyond general education (Tracxn, 2026).
Why did Sharan Hegde drop out of Columbia Business School? Sharan dropped out of Columbia MBA in August 2022 to focus on Finance With Sharan and The 1% Club full-time. By then, his content and early business were growing fast enough to justify leaving (Chahra, April 2026).
Quick Facts
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | Early 2022 | Tracxn, 2026 |
| Co-founders | Sharan Hegde, Raghav Gupta | Tracxn, 2026 |
| Total funding | $1.2M | Tracxn, 2026 |
| Lead investor | Gruhas (Nikhil Kamath-backed) | Entrepreneur India, 2025 |
| RIA licence | February 2025 | Tracxn, 2026 |
| Users | 1M+ | LinkedIn, Sharan Hegde |
| Team size | 200+ | LinkedIn, Sharan Hegde |
| Creator following | 1 crore+ across platforms | Entrepreneur India, 2025 |
| Forbes recognition | Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, 2023 | ValueWalk, September 2025 |
| Book | Zero to Viral (Amazon bestseller) | LinkedIn, Sharan Hegde |
How The 1% Club Built India’s Biggest Finance Community
Building a paid membership before it was fashionable
In 2022, most finance creators were giving content away free and monetising through ads. Sharan bet differently. He built a paid membership community. Consequently, the revenue model aligned with member outcomes rather than viewer attention. Furthermore, paying members engage more seriously than free viewers. Therefore, retention is structurally better. The membership model also meant The 1% Club could invest in real curriculum, expert access, and community infrastructure that a free platform never could.
The RIA licence as a credibility gate
Getting a SEBI RIA licence is not easy. It requires meeting specific qualification, compliance, and net worth criteria. Therefore, when The 1% Club received it in February 2025, it unlocked personalised financial advice services legally. As a result, the platform moved from general education to actual regulated financial planning. This is a significant business expansion. Moreover, it builds a compliance moat that casual finance influencers cannot easily cross.
Nikhil Kamath’s Gruhas as strategic validation
Gruhas is not a typical early-stage fund. It is backed by Nikhil Kamath India’s most credible voice in personal finance and investing. Consequently, when Gruhas led The 1% Club’s Rs 10 crore round, it was more than capital. It was a signal to the market that a credible financial ecosystem founder believed The 1% Club was a real company, not just a content channel with a community attached.
This validation mirrors what institutional VC backing did for other creator-founded startups. Similarly to how House of X gained credibility through Lightspeed and founder angels, The 1% Club’s Gruhas backing positioned it as a serious fintech, not just a creator brand.
The Risks
SEBI regulatory scrutiny of finfluencers is increasing. SEBI has cracked down heavily on unlicensed financial advice from creators. Therefore, The 1% Club’s RIA licence is both a protection and a responsibility non-compliance would be existential.
Workforce reduction signals. In November 2024, The 1% Club laid off 15% of its workforce. Sharan cited AI-driven cost savings as the reason (Tracxn, 2026). However, a 15% layoff in a 200-person company also suggests a period of strategic reset rather than pure optimisation.
Founder-content dependency. The 1% Club’s growth is deeply tied to Sharan’s personal brand. Consequently, the platform needs to build member retention that functions independently of his posting volume as it scales.
Key Takeaways
Sharan Hegde founded The 1% Club in early 2022 after dropping out of Columbia MBA. He built it on a paid membership model for financial education (Chahra, April 2026).
The company raised $1.2M total, including Rs 10 crore from Gruhas the VC fund backed by Nikhil Kamath (Tracxn, 2026).
The 1% Club received a SEBI RIA licence in February 2025, legally unlocking personalised financial advice services and building a compliance moat that content-only competitors cannot easily replicate.
The platform has 1M+ users and a 200+ person team. Sharan has 1 crore+ followers across Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn (LinkedIn, Sharan Hegde).
A November 2024 layoff of 15% of the workforce and an AI-first product pivot signal a company in active transition from content community to regulated fintech platform.
The Bottom Line
The 1% Club is the most structurally serious company built by an Indian finance creator. It has a regulated licence. It has institutional capital from India’s most credible fintech investor. It has a million users and a 200-person team. The content was the beginning. The company is the real story. Whether The 1% Club becomes India’s go-to AI-first personal finance platform depends on whether the product can retain members independently of Sharan’s content schedule and on whether the regulated advice layer can scale without regulatory friction.
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