In 2020, the Forex broker Grand Capital just celebrated its 14th anniversary. Today, Grand Capital is an international broker providing trading and investment services in the foreign exchange and derivatives markets.
Over 14 years, the company has grown to a holding corporation that operates in 190 countries and speaks 15 languages, providing clients with the most advanced trading technologies.
But, of course, this was not always the case. The history of Grand Capital, like that of any other company, is full of ups and downs. Where it all started, and what helped a small brokerage firm to overcome one crisis after another and turn into an international corporation — let’s find out.
The story of any successful business probably begins with one person who has a vision. In the story of Grand Capital, this entrepreneurial person is Stanislav Vaneev, an architect from Saint Petersburg, who, during perestroika, decided to make radical changes in his life and took a plunge.
Only a few people know this, but before founding Grand Capital, he had changed multiple jobs, and even threw parties in Saint Petersburg clubs, until one day he ended up in a currency exchange. This is where the company’s story begins.
In 2006, after several years of trading as a private individual, Stanislav Vaneev with a team of like-minded people founded Grand Capital. The entire infrastructure of the company was created by the method of trial and error since the brokerage business in Russia was still in its infancy.
Thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of young businessmen, the company quickly began to evolve, attract partners, and open new offices in Russia, CIS, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
After a couple of years of active operation, Grand Capital went international, but things rarely go as smoothly as planned — enter the global financial crisis of 2008.
It would seem that everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the young brokerage firm, at first. In that economically challenging period, people are usually expected to be more careful with their savings, but in reality, the opposite happened — an unprecedented surge in trading activity.
In search of easy money, people turned their attention to Forex as a miraculous cure-all. The business immediately went uphill. However, at that time, few people understood the mechanics of the market, followed the rules of Risk Management , and, generally, took this way of earning seriously.
This caused a significant part of the newly arrived audience, clueless about trading, to lose their first deposits and go cold on Forex.
The economy was unstable, frequent recessions forced people to be seriously concerned with how to preserve and increase their funds.
It would seem that financial markets can become an excellent source of income, but the low financial literacy got in the way of trading becoming more popular. In the circumstances, Grand Capital started to engage in educational activity, dispelling myths and prejudices about making money in financial markets.
Analysts from Grand Capital participated in international seminars and conferences, driving up the popularity of the company and trading in general. The media started hunting them for experts comments.
In 2009, the company founded the High School of Stock Trading—today, it counts over 10,000 traders among its alumni. In the same year, Grand Capital joined the KROUFR Association: the membership allows settling financial disputes regardless of the jurisdiction of the company and the client.
Simultaneously with the educational direction, Grand Capital invested in the IT sector as well. This is how another company — UpTrader — appeared.
It started developing software exclusively for Grand Capital, and but now it provides its products and services to brokers across the world.
As Grand Capital expanded its spheres of influence, its reputation among clients and competitors grew accordingly. And people are gradually returning with more trust in the company and the industry as a whole.
2010: the first 100,000 customers. As the number of traders increases, the number of demands they put before their broker also increases in direct proportion.
Trading in just currency pairs could no longer meet their growing needs, and Grand Capital introduced trading in futures and stocks.
What happened next? The financial crisis of 2014–2015, and the collapse of the Swiss franc in 2016. As a result, another influx of people, this time less skeptical and more responsible with their investments.
It became clear that with great turnover comes great responsibility. In 2016, in order to be able to guarantee the utmost security to the clients, Grand Capital joined Finacom, an international independent Forex regulator, and integrated the Serenity Blockchain -based escrow that regulates the relationship between brokers and traders.
“When we were creating the company back in 2006, we defined three main principles of Grand Capital: trust, quality, and reliability. This became the basis for everything we have done since,” says Goutam Das, the director of development in Africa.
Kindling people’s interest and gaining their trust is difficult enough. What is even more difficult? To retain the interest and trust already won. The world does not stand still, and the world of Forex is no exception.
People always tend to want more. Even the most innovative and successful project runs the risk of being forgotten without constant development and renewal. When in 2018 Grand Capital found itself in stagnation, it was time to explore new horizons. That time—mobile ones.
This is how the mobile app Grand Trade came about. Users of the app are able to keep track of the market in real time, trade, and manage their accounts at any time, in any place—the complete experience in their pockets.
Mobility and versatility joined the list of the main tenets of the company.
What else is important for constant progress? Feedback from customers! Historically, Grand Capital operates in multiple regions, with diverse clients and partners.
To satisfy their needs, over 500 instruments and services have appeared in the arsenal of the company over 14 years. And this list is constantly being expanded thanks to the requests of clients—take root and become part of the company.
By 2020, representative offices of Grand Capital operate all over the world, the number of clients is approaching one million, and the average monthly turnover is $2.5 billion.
Could a few young entrepreneurs have imagined this in 2006? Probably yes! It was this determination that helped transform an enterprise into an opportunity, and the opportunity into success.
What’s next in store for Grand Capital — only time will tell!
Disclaimer: The content of this article is sponsored and does not represent the opinions of Finance Magnates.
