Fisdom - Scaling a regulated investing experience across KYC, trading, and options decision support
Now Acquired by Groww YC-backed fintech | 100M+ active users | ₹600 crores AUM | Publicly listed company (2025)
I joined Fisdom in 2019 as a UX designer and left in 2024 as Lead Product Designer, having scaled the platform from mutual funds to a full-stack trading product used by over 1 million active investors. Fisdom went public in 2023.
My work covered the entire investing journey: KYC onboarding (achieved a 47% increase in completion rates - highest in Indian fintech), stock/F&O trading interfaces, portfolio tracking, mutual fund flows, and integrations with 13+ PSU and private banks. Every feature had to balance simplicity for first-time investors with speed for active traders, all while staying compliant with quarterly SEBI regulation changes.
Key outcomes
80% increase in user retention
10x improvement in onboarding efficiency
4.78/5 app rating across 100K+ reviews
Designed India's fastest digital KYC flow (completion up 47%, dev cycle cut by 50%)
What I was hired to solve
Fisdom wanted to expand from mutual funds into stock trading, but Indian retail investors ranged from complete beginners to active F&O traders. The product had to serve both without compromise. Additionally, SEBI regulations changed quarterly - any design update needed to be modular enough to ship fast without rebuilding flows from scratch.
Results
India's best KYC onboarding flow
Redesigned the DEMAT account opening process from a paper-based mess into a guided digital flow. KYC completion increased by 47%, the highest in the industry. Modular design cut the development cycle by 50%, letting us ship regulatory updates in days instead of weeks.
End-to-end trading infrastructure
Built the full trading experience: order placement (Futures, Options, Equities), portfolio tracking, fund management, GTT orders, screeners, IPOs, and alerts. Designed for compliance-first UX - every flow passed SEBI review before launch.
Option chain for retail traders
Made F&O trading accessible to first-time derivatives traders without encouraging reckless behavior. Users reported a 30% reduction in missed opportunities and praised the macro-correlation view for helping them adjust strategies in real time.
13+ bank integrations
Oversaw integrations with PSU and private banks, enabling seamless fund transfers and in-app account linking. Unified pay-in/pay-out for both mutual funds and stock trades.
Positive user feedbacks
Increased User Retention
Improved onboarding process
Three projects that show how I approach complex fintech problems:
What
End-to-end trading flows, order placement, portfolio tracking, fund management, screeners, GTT orders, IPOs, alerts.
Challenge
Serve first-time investors and active traders on the same platform. Stay compliant with SEBI while shipping fast.
Outcome
80% increase in user retention. 10x improvement in onboarding. Integrated with 13+ banks.
Check project
What
Redesigned DEMAT account onboarding to replace the broken paper-based process used by partner PSU banks.
Challenge
SEBI regulations changed quarterly. Design had to be modular, fast to update, and foolproof (heavy penalties for non-compliance).
Outcome
KYC completion increased by 47% - highest in Indian fintech. Development cycle cut by 50%. 47% of abandoned users returned and completed the flow.
Check project
What
Designed an F&O trading interface that made derivatives accessible to first-time traders without encouraging risky behavior.
Challenge
Option chains are overwhelming. Professional traders need dense data. Retail investors need guidance. SEBI mandates we don't push speculation.
Outcome
30% reduction in missed trading opportunities. Users praised macro-correlation view and customizable workspace. Position analysis dashboard reduced margin calls.
Check project
“For a span of 5 years that I have worked with Durgesh at Fisdom, I witnessed him transform into a formidable leader. Not only did he prove himself as a visionary in design, but his inherent interest in finance & behavioural economics pushed Fisdom to become one of the most intuitive financial apps available.”
Amit kumar
Ex Senior Product, Fisdom
Beyond design: teaching finance to ship faster
During COVID, we started building the stock trading KYC flow. I noticed the product and design team didn't understand what a DEMAT account actually was or how margin trading worked. So I ran weekly finance classes - covered mutual funds, stock market basics, F&O, and regulatory constraints.
Result
The team stopped asking basic questions in standups, made better design decisions independently, and our product shipping cycle sped up significantly. Good design requires domain fluency, not just Figma skills.
What I learned at Fisdom
I joined as a UX designer and left as a design lead who could navigate SEBI compliance, mentor junior designers, run finance workshops for cross-functional teams, and ship features to 1M+ users. Fisdom taught me how to design for regulated industries where one mistake costs the company ₹10L in fines.
The work wasn't just about making things look good—it was about understanding the business, the regulations, and the user's mental model well enough to build products that balanced all three.
Project under NDA
