Financial and Consumer Businesses Enter New Growth Phase as Digital, Premiumisation Expand

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By S. JHA

BSE, Billionbrains Garage Ventures, Radico Khaitan and Honasa Consumer are using new products, digital platforms, premiumisation and wider distribution to expand their growth runways.

Mumbai, August 18, 2026 — India’s financial and consumer businesses are finding new avenues for growth as digital platforms add products, exchanges deepen their market offerings and consumer companies move toward premium categories.

The latest Fastest Growing Businesses report by SOIC × StockScans highlights a range of growth catalysts across financial services, consumer businesses and new-age platforms. The report’s contents include BSE, Billionbrains Garage Ventures, Radico Khaitan and Honasa Consumer among the companies covered.

BSE is attempting to strengthen its position in India’s increasingly competitive capital-market ecosystem. The exchange has set an ambition of reaching a “meaningfully double-digit” share of the cash market, potentially by early 2027.

The exchange is also expanding its co-location infrastructure and intends to directly manage worldwide data distribution and licensing following its partnership with Deutsche Börse. It is targeting at least 800 regularly participating derivatives members and plans to introduce additional index derivatives subject to the performance of its existing products.

BSE’s SME platform is another growth engine. The platform crossed 750 listed companies in July 2026, while the latest 150 listings raised ₹6,323 crore. FY26 saw 146 SME listings, up 87% year-on-year, raising ₹6,312 crore.

Billionbrains Garage Ventures, which operates the Groww platform, is expanding beyond its core equity business. Its margin trading facility book reached ₹2,810 crore in Q1 FY27, up 4.7 times year-on-year, while commodity derivatives attracted 435,000 active users.

The company’s commodity business achieved 28.6% retail notional ADTO market share in Q1 FY27. Its wealth platform has also expanded following the acquisition of Fisdom, while bonds and international equities through the GIFT City route are adding new product categories.

The report points to the financial-services growth model as increasingly dependent on product depth rather than simply customer acquisition. Margin trading, commodities, wealth management, bonds and international equities can potentially increase revenue per active customer.

Consumer businesses, meanwhile, are leaning heavily on premiumisation.

Radico Khaitan has raised its FY27 guidance for premium-and-above volumes to more than 25%, compared with an earlier 20% target. Its premium-and-above portfolio grew 36% in Q1 FY27 and now accounts for 53.1% of own volume, compared with 41.5% a year earlier.

The company is also targeting an EBITDA margin of around 20% and expects to become net debt-free by Q2 FY27. Its luxury portfolio is expected to deliver 25% value growth during FY27.

Honasa Consumer is pursuing a different form of premiumisation by concentrating its portfolio around seven focus categories, including face cleansers, shampoos, sunscreens, moisturisers, serums, baby care and lipsticks.

These categories grew more than 35% in Q1 FY27 and contributed more than 85% of revenue. The company expects the focus categories to account for 85%-87% of the business over three years.

Honasa is also expanding into adjacent categories. Its board approved a 58% stake in Fluence Pharma for an enterprise value of about ₹135 crore, giving it access to a portfolio of nutritional products and a network of more than 3,000 prescribing dermatologists.

The company has also entered the fragrance category with F/KN and is targeting further growth through brands and category expansion.

The report’s broader message is that growth is increasingly coming from the expansion of business models. Exchanges are adding new instruments, digital platforms are adding financial products, while consumer companies are shifting their mix toward premium and specialised categories.

That creates multiple potential growth pools, but the report’s projections remain dependent on execution, market conditions and management guidance.