Kotak Neo adds a risk quiz that matches mutual funds to…

A quiz before the fund

Kotak Neo has added a mutual fund risk profiler to its trading app. It is a short quiz that works out how much risk an investor is comfortable with, then shows how each fund lines up against that level before any money goes in.

Before now, picking a fund on the app meant weighing a scheme's risk label without anything to measure it against. The profiler supplies the other half of the comparison. It works rather like a tailor taking measurements before showing anyone the rails: the investor answers questions about themselves first, and the funds are then shown against that answer.

The developer's release notes describe the feature only briefly. They call it a "quick" quiz and say it lets users see how each fund fits their risk level before they invest. The notes do not say whether the quiz is compulsory or what questions it asks, so it is unclear whether it decides which funds an investor can buy or only labels them. That is the main open question about the feature.

The profiler comes in version 2.2.86, alongside what Kotak calls bug fixes and performance improvements. The same notes appear in the version history of the iPhone app, so the feature is not limited to Android.

A new name three weeks earlier

The update is the first notable change since a larger one at company level. On 7 October 2026, Kotak Securities Limited announced that it was rebranding its customer-facing identity as Kotak Neo. Until then, Kotak Neo had been the name of the app; it is now the name of the whole retail business.

Kotak Securities is Now "Kotak Neo" | A New Name, Same TrustKotak Neo · YouTube

For existing customers, little changes in practice. Kotak Securities Limited remains the legal entity, and the company said there would be no change to existing customer accounts, products, services or governance. Whalesbook reported that the rebrand follows a 136% rise in income since FY21, with more than 67 lakh clients.

Area	After the rebrand
Retail brand	Kotak Neo, replacing Kotak Securities
Legal entity	Still Kotak Securities Limited
Customer accounts	No change, according to the company
Wealth clients	Kotak Neo Private Client Group
Distributors	Connect Plus by Kotak Neo

What the 7 October rebrand changed, and what it left alone

The rebrand also brought two named services beyond the app. Kotak Neo is expanding its wealth management business through Kotak Neo Private Client Group and Connect Plus by Kotak Neo, for investors and distributors respectively. According to the company, Connect Plus gives distributors mutual funds, equity broking, insurance, PMS and AIF products, among others.

Research and an AI assistant in the pitch

Kotak has framed the new name around putting research and advice in the same place as trading. Shripal Shah, the managing director and chief executive, said at the launch that the aim was to bring more of that journey together within a single ecosystem. The company listed what it already offers as algorithmic trading, strategy tools, theme-based stock baskets, a mutual fund portfolio analyser and Neome, an AI-powered assistant for exploring Kotak's research.

According to Lapaas Voice, Neome gives information and context but does not recommend investments or place trades on its own. Kotak's own terms say much the same: Neome is offered only for general information, discovery, comparison and analysis.

Speaking to Business Today on the day of the announcement, Shah said technology spending would stay a priority, with AI and automation expected to improve efficiency and customer experience. He also said 67% of new clients come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Iti Mehrotra, Kotak Neo's head of marketing, told Adgully that the name followed its customers rather than the other way round: search interest in "Kotak Neo" had overtaken "Kotak Securities".

A run of mutual fund changes

The risk quiz is the latest in a string of mutual fund features in the app's recent release notes. In an earlier update, the developer said users could connect to MF Central to pull in mutual funds held outside Kotak, then see which are underperforming, with allocation, sector exposure and fund-level detail.

Then came changes to how money moves in and out. One release let investors pay for mutual fund investments from any bank account registered with Kotak Neo. Another promised the expected NAV date, payout timeline, charges and total amount when redeeming. A third said mutual funds transferred off-market now appear in the portfolio.

Taken together, these changes make the app a place to track and analyse funds as well as buy them, including funds bought elsewhere. The profiler adds a step at the start, before a fund is chosen at all.

A broker's app, not only a fund shop

Mutual funds are only part of what the app does. Kotak Neo is a full brokerage app for Indian investors. It offers a demat account, live NSE and BSE prices, and trading in shares, ETFs, futures and options and IPOs. The developer also advertises a margin trading facility with up to 4x leverage on more than 1,000 stocks, and an options strategy builder for derivatives traders.

On pricing, the Google Play listing promises brokerage-free trading for the first 30 days, then ₹10 an order on intraday and F&O trades. It also lists zero brokerage and platform fees for its trading API. On the fund side, the developer's App Store description says SIPs start at ₹100 across more than 1,000 schemes.