The Beginning
Scale Up embarked on its journey in 2011 when Saumil decided to leave his corporate job and began managing money of just two clients.
Harish, a senior partner, joined the venture in 2015. With over 20 years of experience in financial markets, he is a qualified CA and CFA. Prior to venturing into entrepreneurship, Harish had worked with organizations such as ING Vysya Bank Ltd., Standard Chartered Mutual Fund, and IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd. His expertise lies in fixed income, macroeconomics, and currency-related areas in the banking and money market sector.
Initially focused on equity advisory, Scale Up strategically pivoted to derivatives trading driven by the immense passion of both Saumil and Harish for this domain. In 2015-16, they acquired a license for prop trading business under a broking company. During the years from 2015-16 to 2018-2020, Scale Up expanded from a two-member team to an eight-member team.
The year 2020 proved to be a breakthrough for Scale Up despite the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic, which led to a market fall of 40% from the top. Thanks to their robust risk management strategies, Scale Up continued to generate consistent profits even amid the turmoil. As a result, the company now has a dedicated team of 30 hardworking members and successfully manages a substantial size of Assets Under Management (AUM) in the prop trading business.
Timeline
2011
Scale Up was founded by Saumil Parikh with his own capital. Business started with 5 clients.
2012
Amit Chauhan joined Saumil with 6 years of experience to handle trade execution & operations.
2014
We became a sub-broker. Team size increased to 5. More clients and derivatives strategies added in the business.
2016
Client size increased to 150. We started Proprietary Trading by ploughing back profits. Team size expanded to 10.
2017
Malvika Parikh joined the team to head operations. Harish Menon joined Scale Up, brought in capital to augment Proprietary Trading.
2018
Tied up with institutional desks for expanding trading limits in Prop Trading business. Risk Management System (RMS) was set up.
2019
Break-through year for Proprietary Trading business. We decided to wind up clients in a phased manner. Started investing part of profits in early-stage start-ups.
2020
Trading system & risk management model tested by market crash and came out profitable. Increased goodwill amongst Institutional clients due to strong RMS.
2021
Expanded prop trading business on the back of success of 2020. Hired professional trades & added new strategies. New office setup with state-of-the-art trading desk.
2022
Prop trading exposure highest till date. Team size increased to 30. Deployed Algo based strategies.
2023
Received license of $ denominated fund in GIFT City.