Angel One sheds 20% workforce amid growth reset

Angel One Limited (

) has trimmed its permanent workforce to 2,934 in FY26 from 3,823 a year earlier, representing a headcount reduction of nearly 20%. The sharp rationalization comes as retail trading activity slows and regulatory changes hit the broker's primary volume driver: derivatives. SEBI has tightened contract sizes, position limits, and expiry terms for index derivatives, reducing individual trader loss volumes across the industry. Consequently, Angel One saw gross client additions drop by around 27%, while trading order volume growth slowed to 9.5% despite total clients hitting 39.03 million in July. Competitors like Groww and Zerodha continue to extract higher profit per user, with Groww generating ₹2,083 crore in net profit on ₹4,644 crore revenue in FY26, compared to Angel One’s ₹915 crore profit on ₹5,137 crore revenue. To combat slowing core broking revenue, management is pushing a cross-selling transformation. Angel One is expanding into non-broking revenue drivers such as wealth management, distribution, credit, and asset management, while forming a joint venture with Livwell for digital insurance products. Non-broking revenue streams now account for about one-third of overall revenue, up from 17% in FY23. What the headline misses is that headcount cuts were paired with rising employee benefit expenses, pointing to higher-cost executive hires rather than pure cost reduction. Additionally, AI adoption has improved engineering efficiency. Investors should watch whether the platform can successfully scale its super app to cross-sell non-broking products without confusing users. Key metrics to monitor include gross client acquisition trends, average client funding book growth, and market share retention against discount broking rivals. Disclosure: This post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice.