What First-Time Investors Want (And How We Helped SBI Find Out)
Launching a mutual fund app in a market dominated by established fintech players isn't a decision you make without intelligence.
SBI Mutual Funds was preparing to launch InvesTap, their new investment platform targeting first-time mutual fund investors. The competitive landscape was crowded—Groww, Angel One, Upstox, and Paytm Money had already captured significant mindshare. The internal questions were mounting: What features would convince users to switch? Where were the gaps competitors weren't filling? What would make someone choose a bank-backed app over the fintech darlings?
The stakes were significant. SBI had the trust and the branch network—thousands of locations across India. But trust alone wasn't winning in digital. They needed to understand the psychology of the first-time investor, not just their stated preferences.
The question they brought to us: What do first-time mutual fund investors actually struggle with - and what would make them choose InvesTap over everything else?
We captured what investors do, not just what they say.
We surveyed thousands of active fintech app users across India's top metro and Tier 2 cities. But we went further than surveys. With user permission, we collected Ephemeral Data - actual app usage patterns from Paytm, Upstox, Angel One, and Groww showing time spent, login frequency, and activity across platforms. Not what they claimed to do. What they actually did.
We segmented by generation (Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X), geography (Tier 1 vs Tier 2), and investment experience. We ran conjoint analysis to understand feature trade-offs. We mapped the gap between stated preferences and revealed behavior. Within weeks, SBI had a complete picture of the first-time investor journey—pain points, feature gaps, competitive vulnerabilities, and major opportunities no one was addressing.
The findings revealed hidden opportunities in plain sight.
The data told a story the market had missed. KYC was the silent killer—complicated onboarding emerged as the top pain point. A significant chunk of potential investors was abandoning ship before they even started. Gen Z felt this most acutely.
Users were multi-homing across multiple platforms on average. Not because they wanted to—because no single app let them track all their mutual funds in one place. All-AMC integration emerged as the most important missing feature. The consolidation opportunity was massive.
Regional language revealed a paradox. A majority said they'd switch platforms for vernacular support—but in trade-off scenarios, language ranked lowest. It wasn't a differentiator. It was a barrier-remover. The real insight: the vast majority faced language-related challenges that made them avoid certain features entirely.
And the biggest gap? No competitor had AI-powered fund selection. A significant portion of users needed help understanding which funds to invest in. First-mover advantage was sitting there unclaimed.
The competitive analysis exposed SBI's hidden advantage: while Groww and Angel One under-indexed in Tier 2 cities, SBI showed relative strength. The bank brand worked—but only when paired with better UX.
Now they're building with precision, not assumptions.
SBI Mutual Funds now has a research-backed roadmap for InvesTap—prioritized by actual user demand, not internal opinion. They know which features drive acquisition, which create stickiness, and which segments to target first.
Before
Assumed language was a primary differentiator
After
Discovered it’s a hygiene factor—customer support is the real #1 driver
Before
Assumed language was a primary differentiator
After
Discovered it’s a hygiene factor—customer support is the real #1 driver
Before
Generic feature roadmap
After
Generation-specific strategies (video-first for Gen Z, peer forums for Gen X)
Before
Generic feature roadmap
After
Generation-specific strategies (video-first for Gen Z, peer forums for Gen X)
Before
Competing head-to-head with Groww in metros
After
Tier 2-first strategy leveraging SBI's regional strength
Before
Competing head-to-head with Groww in metros
After
Tier 2-first strategy leveraging SBI's regional strength
Hercules surveyed thousands of investors, captured real app usage behavior from leading fintech platforms, and mapped the psychology of first-time mutual fund adoption—delivering a prioritized feature roadmap and go-to-market strategy for InvesTap's launch.
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