Zerodha partners with PensionBox, commits $2M to expand corporate NPS

Zerodha has entered into a joint venture with retirement-focused fintech startup Pension Box to expand distribution and product development around the National Pension System (NPS), as the firms seek to tap rising interest in retirement savings among salaried employees.

Zerodha has committed about $2 million toward the venture across multiple tranches, reflecting its longer-term push into wealth and savings products beyond equities.

The partnership will combine Pension Box’s corporate NPS technology infrastructure with Zerodha’s customer reach and brand. The two companies plan to co-develop products, particularly targeting employer-led NPS adoption, where payroll integration and automated employee contributions are key growth drivers.

PensionBox, founded by brothers Kuldeep and Shivam Parasar, has focused on digitising pension onboarding and management for both employers and individuals, with a stronger tilt toward corporate NPS adoption. Pension Box has built digital workflows that integrate NPS contributions with Human Resource Management Systems and payroll systems, streamlining onboarding and administration for companies.

Zerodha said the collaboration aligns with its strategy of partnering with specialist founders for ancillary financial services rather than building such offerings in-house. “Whenever it comes to ancillary products to broking and execution, we’ll partner with founders who are focusing on such products full time,” Somnath Mukherjee, Zerodha’s vice president of corporate development, said, adding the initiative will leverage Zerodha’s distribution network to improve retirement savings participation.

Mukherjee sees NPS as potentially evolving into a retirement savings instrument comparable to the US 401(k) model. He said structural changes to retirement products and tax policy are pushing NPS into the mainstream. He noted that NPS adoption had historically been dominated by government employees but is now seeing renewed traction in the private sector.

Recent rule changes introduced by the pension regulator have shortened lock-in flexibility and expanded product options, allowing investors to withdraw funds after 15 years instead of remaining locked in until retirement age in certain cases. Mukherjee said these features could increase participation, particularly among younger savers seeking equity exposure alongside long-term retirement planning.

Zerodha expects that increased awareness, improved digital infrastructure and employer participation could position corporate NPS as a default retirement savings product similar to employer-backed health insurance plans, which have achieved widespread acceptance in India.

PensionBox said it currently works with organisations ranging from large corporates to educational institutions and hospitality companies. The startup has more than 200,000 individual users on its platform.

The platform supports SIPs for pension savings, tracking, and withdrawal planning. PensionBox fully digitises employer onboarding, employee enrolment, monthly contributions and compliance reporting with APIs that integrate with HRMS/payroll systems.

It automates payroll deductions and contribution uploads, significantly reducing administrative effort for HR teams. Its Auto-filled digital form cut application time from over 20 minutes to a few minutes.