BS READS: Zerodha's run to top is made of more than just 'free' brokerage

The company's tight-aggressive business model has done well so far, but with other players, both traditional and new, smelling an opportunity, there could be a very fascinating game ahead

In just a few years, Bangalore-based online stockbroking firm Zerodha toppled the market leader of the time, which had occupied the top spot for more than a decade. Sitting 600 miles away from Mumbai, a financial powerhouse for all major stockbrokers and other financial service companies, Zerodha in January last year outdid ICICI Securities to become the largest stockbroking firm in India by number of active clients.

However, it was a different world a decade earlier, when Nithin Kamath founded Zerodha along with his brother Nikhil in 2010.

Kamath, who had been an active trader since the age of 16,