Nikhil Kamath's post for Zerodha's 16th anniversary has a lovely personal touch

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath marked the company's 16th anniversary with a personal post about colleagues and families. Beneath the humour, he said the company's real distinction was how many early team members were still together.Nikhil Kamath’s post for Zerodha's 16th anniversary has a lovely personal touch (Photo: @nikhilkamathcio/X)Online brokerage platform Zerodha turned 16, and co-founder Nikhil Kamath marked the occasion with a surprisingly personal post about the people who have been around since the company's early days.Kamath shared the post on his official X account, reflecting on the company's journey while giving followers a glimpse into a recent Zerodha gathering.Rather than focusing on business milestones, he used the occasion to joke about his colleagues, their families and how much, or how little, some things had changed over the years.“To the 16-year-young startup Zerodha, happy birthday,” Kamath wrote. He then offered a series of playful observations from the gathering. He joked that his brother and Zerodha CEO Nithin Kamath was “back” and had finally started laughing again after a long time.He also mentioned Nithin's wife, Seema, saying she was cancer-free and joking that she was now auditioning for Wonder Woman. The post then turned into a series of affectionate digs at others in the Zerodha circle. Kamath remarked that Karthik was getting “jacked”, described Associate Vice President Venu as very good-looking and joked that Deepa, the wife of Zerodha Chief Technology Officer Kailash Nadh, always appeared happier when her husband was not around.But beneath the humour was a more reflective observation about the company's longevity.“Different things set different companies apart,” Kamath wrote, adding that Zerodha's distinction could be the number of people who were still in the room after 15 years.He pointed out that many of the same people had been there when the company was much younger, joking that back then there were “no kids, no white hair, no things."Take a look at the post here:To the 16-year-young startup Zerodha, happy birthdayKey learnings from the day: Nithin is back and can laugh sometimes, after a long time . Seema is cancer-free and auditioning for Wonder Woman soon. Karthik is getting jacked. Venu is very good-looking. And Deepa, Kailash pic.twitter.com/FSIX13pb4h— Nikhil Kamath (@nikhilkamathcio) August 18, 2026Kamath's birthday post, however, focused less on those achievements and more on the people behind them. The comments reflected that sentiment, with several users congratulating Zerodha on 16 years of building and growing together.One person described the company as a “silver lining” amid corporate life, while another praised the bond between Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, saying their mutual affection and respect were as inspiring as the institution they had built.Another person jokingly hoped that 16 years from now, in 2042, the same group would still be sitting together in the same room.Founded in 2010 by brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, Zerodha grew into one of India's largest retail stockbroking platforms by focusing on low-cost investing and technology-led services.The company disrupted India's traditional brokerage market with its discount-brokerage model and later expanded into products and platforms covering investing, trading and financial education.Unlike many of its peers, Zerodha has also built its reputation around remaining bootstrapped rather than relying on traditional venture-capital funding. Over the years, the company has become one of India's most prominent examples of a technology business built without the usual startup funding playbook.- EndsPublished By: Yashna TalwarPublished On: Aug 18, 2026 15:04 IST