Screener.in is an investment research company based in India that provides a stock screening and financial data website for retail investors.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what Screener.in does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

Screener.in in Brief

• What it is: Screener.in is an Indian Stock screening platform company.
• Who it serves: consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises.
• Screener.in offers a website for screening and analysing listed Indian companies, with custom screens on 10+ years of financial data.
• Features include watchlists, screen and stock alerts, tracking of big investors' and mutual funds' holdings, Excel export for ratio analysis, shareholder search and company announcements.
• A Screener AI tool and commodity price analysis are part of the premium offering.
• Funding: none found; reported as bootstrapped.

Screener.in Quick Facts

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is Screener.in?

Screener.in operates in the Stock screening platform space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to Screener.in.

• Screener.in offers a website for screening and analysing listed Indian companies, with custom screens on 10+ years of financial data.
• Features include watchlists, screen and stock alerts, tracking of big investors' and mutual funds' holdings, Excel export for ratio analysis, shareholder search and company announcements.
• A Screener AI tool and commodity price analysis are part of the premium offering.
• The site was free for its first nine years; users can now buy a premium plan, which is priced at Rs 4,999 a year including GST (several reviews).
• A 2026 guide says it serves over 5 million users.

The Origin Story of Screener.in

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

• Founders: Ayush Mittal, Pratyush Mittal.
• The company's About page says it was created by brothers Ayush and Pratyush Mittal in 2009; both are chartered accountants who went into full-time investing.
• Pratyush Mittal built the tool, first automating research in Excel (an earlier blog tool called Awesome BSEXL), then moving to the cloud and a public site; launch is reported as May 24, 2009.
• The brothers are from Lucknow, from a family of stock brokers and investors; their father became a full-time broker in 1984.
• The founders expected about 100 users at first; their CA teacher set a goal of 10,000.

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the Stock screening platform sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

• May 2009: Screener.in launched.
• Years of free use funded by donations from members.
• 2018: paid membership under consideration; it was later introduced.
• 2019: the family's portfolio management service started.
• 2016: the founders presented at the BSE, per a Moneylife event report.
• FY24: reported profit of about Rs 16.88 crore, up from Rs 4.43 crore in FY23.

Screener.in Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

• Detailed round-by-round funding for Screener.in is not disclosed in the public sources reviewed.
• Readers should check regulatory filings and company announcements for the latest position.

How Does Screener.in Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

• Freemium: free accounts with a paid premium tier at Rs 4,999 a year, with no monthly plan (reviews).
• Premium raises alert limits (stock alerts 10 to 800, screen alerts 2 to 75) and adds Screener AI credits.
• Customer support is restricted to paying users.
• Earlier revenue came from patron contributions and donations.

The Numbers: Screener.in Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

• FY24 revenue about Rs 24.83 crore, up from about Rs 7.9 crore in FY23 (reported by a data site, not verified against filings).
• FY24 profit about Rs 16.88 crore versus Rs 4.43 crore in FY23; EBITDA margin about 88.27% versus 72.26% (same source).
• No FY25 figures found.

Market Opportunity for Screener.in

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are the scale of UPI, rising digital lending, growing participation in investing and insurance, and the digitisation of small merchants. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

• Serves Indian retail investors researching listed stocks, in a field with several screening and research sites.
• Limits noted by reviewers: end-of-day data only and no iOS app, so it suits fundamental rather than day-trading use.

Technology and Product at Screener.in

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are uptime, security, fraud controls, integrations with banks and the speed of onboarding customers.

• Screening engine over a decade of company financials with Excel export.
• Screener AI tool added to the premium plan.

Team and Culture at Screener.in

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

• Ayush Mittal and Pratyush Mittal, brothers and founders; Pratyush built the product.
• Ayush Mittal also co-founded the ValuePickr investing forum.

Screener.in Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Risks and Challenges for Screener.in

• Heavy reliance on a small founder team.
• Competition from larger platforms with more data, apps and news.
• Data is end-of-day only, limiting use by active traders.
• Regulatory risk: rules from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI or NPCI can change economics or business scope quickly.
• Concentration risk: dependence on a few partners, banks or payment rails can create single points of failure.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

Screener.in Growth Outlook: What to Watch

• The company has said it intends to charge heavy users based on certain parameters.
• A planned wiki feature would let users contribute to the knowledge base.
• Key indicators: transaction value, take rate, active users, credit quality and cost of acquiring each customer.
• Funding position: Whether Screener.in can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
• Regulation: Changes from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI.

Industry Context: Where Screener.in Fits

India's financial technology sector has been shaped by public digital infrastructure, especially UPI, along with Aadhaar-based identity, the account aggregator framework and regulation from the RBI, SEBI and IRDAI. These rails let startups reach customers and merchants at very low cost, but also expose them to fast-changing rules on licensing, data and lending conduct.

As payments become a low-margin commodity, fintech companies increasingly compete on distribution, merchant services, credit, wealth and insurance products. Sustainable profit usually depends on compliance strength, cost control and the quality of customer relationships rather than transaction volume alone.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for Screener.in

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for Screener.in.

Bull case

• Digital payments and credit continue to grow, widening the market.
• Strong compliance and distribution create durable advantages.
• Cross-selling to existing customers can lift revenue per user.

Bear case

• Regulatory shifts can change economics overnight.
• Free or low-fee products make profit hard to reach.
• Fraud, outages and partner dependence can hurt trust.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from Screener.in

Studying a company in the Stock screening platform space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about Screener.in.

• Compliance is a growth enabler in financial services, not just a cost, because licences decide what a company is allowed to sell.
• Distribution and customer trust often matter more than the underlying payment or lending technology.
• Products that earn from services and credit tend to be steadier than ones that depend on free transactions.
• Dependence on a single bank partner or rail creates risk that should be managed early.
• Fraud prevention and uptime are core product features, not back-office tasks.

How to Evaluate Screener.in as a Startup

• Customer clarity: Can Screener.in name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
• Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
• Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
• Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
• Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
• Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
• Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
• Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

Screener.in is part of India’s growing Stock screening platform ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

• Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
• Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
• Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

Screener.in FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Screener.in?

Screener.in is an investment research company based in India that provides a stock screening and financial data website for retail investors. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded Screener.in?

Screener.in was founded by Ayush Mittal, Pratyush Mittal, and the company reports a founding year of 2009.

How much funding has Screener.in raised?

none found; reported as bootstrapped. Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does Screener.in make money?

Screener.in earns revenue from its Stock screening platform products and services sold to consumers, merchants, banks, lenders and enterprises. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of Screener.in?

Reported rivals include Tickertape, Trendlyne, Moneycontrol, StockEdge. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for Screener.in?

Main risks include rules from the rbi, sebi, irdai or npci can change economics or business scope quickly, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and NPCI. This is educational content, not investment advice.

Related Startup Deep Dives: PayU India — PayU India grew FY25 revenue about 21% to $669 million while its payments arm hit breakeven in H2 FY25 | BankBazaar — BankBazaar: Rs 215 crore FY24 revenue, eyeing an IPO. Browse the full Startup Deep Dive series.

Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.