Rainmatter takes 51% of PensionBox: Zerodha’s corporate NPS bet
Zerodha's Rainmatter bought 51% of PensionBox for about $2 million. Deal terms, FY25 numbers, how the corporate NPS split works and the 2025 rule changes.
Ishaan Vardhan16 Oct 2026 · 8 min read
Zerodha, through its investment arm Rainmatter, took a 51% stake in Bengaluru pension startup PensionBox for about $2 million. The deal was announced as a partnership in December 2025 and confirmed in regulatory filings reported in February 2026. PensionBox runs corporate National Pension System (NPS) accounts for employers, and the deal makes it Zerodha’s route into workplace retirement savings while Zerodha’s own Coin app serves individual investors. Here’s what the filings showed, why corporate NPS became more attractive in 2025–26, and what we could confirm since.
Key takeaways
- Rainmatter (Zerodha’s investment arm) acquired 51% of PensionBox for about $2 million through a mix of new shares and purchases from existing holders, according to filings reported by Entrackr in February 2026.
- The founders, brothers Kuldeep and Shivam Parashar, kept about 48%. Early backers including 100X.VC, SAT Industries, Keynote Capital and LetsVenture fully exited.
- PensionBox is tiny by revenue: ₹1.75 lakh (₹175,000) in operating revenue in FY25, with a ₹75 lakh net loss.
- The two companies have split their roles. PensionBox focuses on corporate NPS under a co-branded offering, and Zerodha’s Coin handles retail NPS.
- NPS exit rules changed in December 2025, allowing non-government subscribers to withdraw up to 80% as a lump sum. That makes the product easier to sell to employees.
The deal, step by step
Zerodha first described the tie-up on 3 December 2025 in a Z-Connect blog post. It said it was investing in PensionBox through Rainmatter and partnering with it to power Zerodha’s corporate NPS offering. The post didn’t give the size of the stake.
The numbers came out in February 2026. On 11 February, Entrackr reported, based on regulatory filings, that Rainmatter had acquired a 51% stake for about $2 million. The deal combined primary shares (new money into the company) and secondary purchases (buying existing investors’ shares). The founders together held about 48% afterwards, and the filings reported didn’t account for the remaining roughly 1%.
Early investors 100X.VC, SAT Industries, Keynote Capital, LetsVenture and a group of angel investors received full exits, according to Entrackr and Indian Startup News. Storyboard18 reported that PensionBox had raised $260,000 in pre-seed funding from 100X.VC in 2021.
Kuldeep Parashar declined to share the valuation. He told Entrepreneur India that the new capital, together with earlier funding, would help the company scale over the next one to two years. Because part of the $2 million went to selling shareholders rather than the company, you can’t work out a valuation from the headline numbers alone.
What PensionBox does
PensionBox was founded in 2021 by Kuldeep and Shivam Parashar and is based in Bengaluru. Zerodha’s support page describes it as a PFRDA-registered pension agent. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is India’s pension regulator.
The company works on two fronts, according to Zerodha:
- Corporate NPS: digitising employer registration, employee onboarding, contribution processing and compliance, with APIs (software connections) to HR and payroll systems. Zerodha said the service is offered at no cost to companies.
- Individual NPS: account opening, SIPs (systematic investment plans, meaning automatic monthly contributions), tracking of the PRAN (the permanent retirement account number every NPS member gets), and NPS Vatsalya accounts for children.
PensionBox said it can set up corporate NPS for a company within 24 hours without paperwork, according to Inc42. Storyboard18 reported that it serves about two lakh (200,000) retail NPS customers.
How the Zerodha split works
Zerodha doesn’t offer corporate NPS directly. Its support page says customers “cannot invest directly in Corporate NPS through Zerodha”, and that employers sign up through PensionBox’s corporate portal. Storyboard18 described the corporate offering as co-branded between the two companies. For individuals, Zerodha said Coin and PensionBox complement each other, and users can track NPS holdings on both. Zerodha VP of corporate development Somnath Mukherjee told Storyboard18 the partnership was about enabling long-term retirement savings through co-branded corporate NPS.
The numbers behind PensionBox
The filings show a very early-stage business. Figures for the financial year ended 31 March 2025, as reported by Entrackr:
| FY25 metric | Amount |
|---|---|
| Operating revenue | ₹1.75 lakh (₹175,000) |
| Total expenses | ₹77 lakh |
| Net loss | ₹75 lakh |
One lakh is 100,000 rupees. Revenue that small shows how little a distributor earns from NPS. Storyboard18 noted that NPS intermediaries typically earn about 0.2% of assets as commission, so revenue only builds once a platform holds a large pool of contributions. That’s why the plan leans on employers: one company signing up can bring hundreds of employees with automatic monthly contributions.
Why corporate NPS is getting easier to sell
The rule changes
In December 2025, PFRDA notified amendments to its NPS exit and withdrawal rules. Business Standard reported the main changes for non-government subscribers, a group that includes corporate NPS members:
- Up to 80% of the corpus can now be taken as a lump sum at exit, with at least 20% used to buy an annuity. The earlier split was 60% lump sum and at least 40% annuity.
- Smaller corpuses get more freedom. Up to ₹8 lakh can be withdrawn fully as a lump sum, and between ₹8 lakh and ₹12 lakh, up to ₹6 lakh can be taken as a lump sum.
- For normal exit, the vesting period became 15 years or age 60, whichever comes first, replacing the earlier requirement to stay until 60.
- Subscribers can get loans from regulated lenders against up to 25% of their own contributions.
Inc42 also reported that the age limit for staying in NPS was extended from 75 to 85. Together, these changes answer the most common objection to NPS: that money is locked away for decades and most of it has to go into an annuity.
The tax angle
According to Inc42, employees who move to India’s new income tax regime lose the extra ₹50,000 deduction under Section 80CCD(1B) for their own NPS contributions. Employer contributions to an employee’s NPS account remain deductible, and Storyboard18 reported a limit of up to 14% of basic salary. Inc42 argued that this makes corporate NPS an attractive tax-saving option, especially for higher earners. Tax treatment depends on your regime and salary structure, so confirm it with a qualified tax adviser or the Income Tax Department before acting. To see how employer contributions affect your take-home pay, try our in-hand salary calculator.
How big is the opportunity?
Kuldeep Parashar told Storyboard18 that while around seven lakh companies must offer the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), only about 22,000 currently offer NPS. Inc42’s feature attributed the 22,000 figure to PensionBox’s own client count and said it aims to reach seven to eight lakh companies in three to four years. The two readings differ. PensionBox’s FY25 revenue of ₹1.75 lakh fits better with 22,000 being the market-wide figure, but neither outlet has published a correction, so treat the client count as unconfirmed.
Whichever reading is right, the gap is the pitch: lots of companies already run payroll-linked retirement deductions for EPF, but few have added NPS. Parashar called PensionBox India’s first tech-enabled solution of its kind, a claim from the company that we couldn’t independently verify.
What has happened since February
As of 4 October 2026, we found no further funding round, regulatory filing coverage or published user numbers for PensionBox after the February 2026 reports. Zerodha’s support documentation continues to send employers to PensionBox for corporate NPS. FY26 accounts, for the year to March 2026, will be the first financial statements to cover the period after Zerodha’s involvement, and we’ll update this article when they’re reported.
Why it matters
Zerodha’s Neelesh Verma told Entrackr that Rainmatter doesn’t interfere in founders’ decisions and invests only where the vision aligns. Even so, taking 51% of PensionBox is a stronger commitment than a typical startup investment. It gives Zerodha a distribution channel into employers, reaching savers through payroll instead of one investor at a time.
For PensionBox, the deal swaps a scattered early-investor base for a single strategic owner with a large retail investor base and a well-known brand. The open question is execution. A business that earned ₹1.75 lakh in FY25 now has to turn regulatory tailwinds into thousands of employer sign-ups. Track more fintech deals on our funding tracker.
This article is for information only and isn’t investment or tax advice. Check NPS rules with PFRDA or a qualified adviser before making decisions.
FAQ
How much of PensionBox does Zerodha own?
Rainmatter, Zerodha’s investment arm, acquired 51% for about $2 million, according to filings reported in February 2026. The founders kept about 48%.
What is PensionBox?
A Bengaluru-based, PFRDA-registered pension agent founded in 2021 that helps employers set up corporate NPS and helps individuals open and manage NPS accounts.
Can I open corporate NPS through Zerodha?
Not directly. Zerodha’s support page says employers set it up through PensionBox’s corporate portal.
What changed in NPS withdrawal rules in December 2025?
Non-government subscribers can now take up to 80% of the corpus as a lump sum (up from 60%), with smaller corpuses allowed larger or full lump sums. The exit vesting rule became 15 years or age 60, whichever comes first.
Was PensionBox profitable?
No. It reported operating revenue of ₹1.75 lakh and a net loss of ₹75 lakh in FY25.
Sources
- Zerodha Z-Connect, “Introducing PensionBox”, 3 December 2025. Link
- Entrackr, “Zerodha-backed Rainmatter acquires majority stake in PensionBox”, 11 February 2026. Link
- Indian Startup News, “Zerodha’s Rainmatter Investments acquires 51% stake in digital pension platform PensionBox”, 12 February 2026. Link
- Entrepreneur India, “Zerodha’s Rainmatter Acquires Majority Stake in PensionBox for USD 2 Mn”, 12 February 2026. Link
- Storyboard18, “Zerodha invests $2 million in Pensionbox, forms joint venture to scale Corporate NPS”, 12 February 2026. Link
- Inc42, “Why Zerodha Is Betting On Retirement Savings — And Backing PensionBox”, 15 February 2026. Link
- Zerodha Support, “How to invest in Corporate NPS through Zerodha?”, accessed 4 October 2026. Link
- Business Standard, “Exit regulation amendments: PFRDA allows loans against pension savings”, 16 December 2025. Link
Featured image: Bengaluru, home to both Zerodha and PensionBox. · Photo: Ashwin Kumar from Bangalore, India / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
How this article was made: researched and drafted with AI assistance by the 100xFounder editorial desk, using only the sources listed in it; every figure links to its source. Read our editorial policy, or report an error through our corrections policy.
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Sources (8)
- Zerodha Z-Connect 3 Dec 2025Partnership announcement, investing through Rainmatter, PensionBox services, zero cost to companies, Coin complements PensionBox
- Entrackr 11 Feb 202651% for $2M, primary and secondary, exits, founders 48%, FY25 revenue/expenses/loss, corporate vs Coin split, Neelesh Verma quote
- Indian Startup News 12 Feb 2026Founded 2021 by Kuldeep and Shivam Parashar, PFRDA-regulated, Bengaluru, exits
- Entrepreneur India 12 Feb 2026Founder declined valuation; capital to scale over one to two years
- Storyboard18 12 Feb 2026$260K pre-seed from 100X.VC in 2021, two lakh retail customers, 0.2% commission, 14% of basic, 22,000 of seven lakh EPF companies offer NPS, Somnath Mukherjee quote, co-branded
- Inc42 15 Feb 202624-hour setup, HRMS/payroll integration, 22,000 companies claim and 7-8 lakh target, 80CCD(1B) under new regime, age limit 75 to 85, CEO claim
- Zerodha Support 4 Oct 2026No direct corporate NPS via Zerodha; PensionBox is PFRDA-registered pension agent; employers sign up via PensionBox portal
- Business Standard 16 Dec 2025PFRDA exit rule amendments: 80/20 lump sum, ₹8-12 lakh options, 15-year vesting, loans against 25% of own contribution
