Billionbrains Garage Ventures544603Earnings call transcript

Q2 FY27 earnings call transcript: one-time cost hit, MTF additions, employee cost trend

Groww's Q2 FY27 earnings call transcript is out.

By ScoutQuest · Fri 16 Oct 2026, 4:58 PM IST · 3 min read

One-time Cost Hit: around INR10 crores to INR13 crore from file delays on an expiry day
MTF Book Quarterly Additions: average quarterly additions of INR600 crores to INR700 crores
Employee Cost: INR182 crores (Q1), INR173 crores (Q4) and INR169 crores

Call snapshot

This transcript covers Groww's Q2 FY27 earnings call, where management answered analyst questions on cost trends, the margin trade funding (MTF) book, employee expenses and the SEBI CAS circular.

Cost to Grow vs Cost to Serve

Cost to Grow and Cost to Serve were described as largely independent costs. Cost to Serve covers transaction and technology costs, while Cost to Grow covers brand building and performance marketing.
Cost to Grow was lower this quarter because the IPL branding cost incurred in the previous quarter did not recur.
Cost to Serve was higher for three stated reasons: AI-related costs that started coming in as the company increased focus on AI, higher compute costs, and a higher number of trading days in the quarter (compute use is higher on trading days).
A one-time hit of around INR10 crores to INR13 crore arose from file delays on a particular expiry day and forms part of Cost to Serve.

Margin trade funding book

Management said the book moves with stock volatility: positions get built when stocks fall and are squared off when they rise. Stocks moving into a circuit or changing group (where MTF is not possible) also affect the book day to day.
On average, the company said it is able to add INR600 crores to INR700 crores on a quarterly basis.
Management expects that trend to continue, noting the business remains underpenetrated from both a customer and a market share perspective, while individual quarters will have days of ups and downs.
Stock-level underwriting and haircut reviews are done on a continuous basis, with some further optimisation in the pipeline; management said last quarter's volatility was independent of those changes.

Employee costs

The analyst referred to employee cost of INR182 crores in 1Q, INR173 crores in the fourth quarter and around INR169 crores more recently.
Management said cost to operate, which includes people cost, G&A and CSR spends, remained flat quarter-on-quarter, with CSR spends the only increase from the last quarter.
On the employee expense line specifically, management said that structurally, longer term, the cost will remain in line with how it was the last quarter; Q1 carried a one-time impact of the appraisal cycle which has since normalised. Management indicated the cost should not be expected to come down from here.

CAS / SEBI circular

Management said both options in the SEBI circular more or less will not impact the derivatives segment, because closing of the derivative segment will either be 100% based on VWAP or a weighted average, where the large part of the weight comes from the VWAP piece compared to the CAS piece.
The expectation is that volumes return to normal, with the timing depending on the date from which the circular becomes applicable; management said normalisation should be faster from that date.

What investors may take away

The call explains the quarter's cost movement reasons and sets out management's expectations that MTF additions continue at a similar quarterly pace and that employee cost stays around recent levels.

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