smallcase
smallcase
smallcase
INDUSTRY
Fintech
Fintech
SERVICES
Brand Identity & Strategy
Brand Identity & Strategy
TL;DR
smallcase is a Bangalore-based fintech that lets retail investors buy curated baskets of stocks and ETFs. I joined as a brand designer in 2021, as part of a two-person design team that eventually scaled to six, covering six verticals across the business. Over four years, as the company grew to 300 people and became a household name in Indian investing, we built the brand that grew with it.
smallcase is a Bangalore-based fintech that lets retail investors buy curated baskets of stocks and ETFs. I joined as a brand designer in 2021, as part of a two-person design team that eventually scaled to six, covering six verticals across the business. Over four years, as the company grew to 300 people and became a household name in Indian investing, we built the brand that grew with it.
PROBLEM
smallcase had a product people were starting to trust, but nothing visually that made it feel like a brand they could identify in the wild. The challenge wasn't just to make things look good; it was to build something with enough internal logic that it could scale across thousands of touchpoints without falling apart or losing its character. Fintech in India at the time defaulted to either corporate and cold or loud and aggressive. Neither was right for a product trying to make investing feel accessible and human.
smallcase had a product people were starting to trust, but nothing visually that made it feel like a brand they could identify in the wild. The challenge wasn't just to make things look good; it was to build something with enough internal logic that it could scale across thousands of touchpoints without falling apart or losing its character. Fintech in India at the time defaulted to either corporate and cold or loud and aggressive. Neither was right for a product trying to make investing feel accessible and human.
THE WORK
We built the visual language from the ground up: the colour system, typography, iconography, and illustration style. Every element was designed to work together and to feel distinctly smallcase, not borrowed from a generic fintech template.
A significant part of the work was paid acquisition and retargeting. Over four years, we produced over 2,000 ad creatives across digital, social, print, and out-of-home, built to bring new users in and keep smallcase top of mind. That sustained creative output contributed to a product that reached 1 crore+ installs, 1 lakh+ daily orders, and a 4.6 App Store rating.
Illustration became one of the brand's strongest assets. We developed a system that could explain complex financial ideas in plain, culturally resonant visual language. Campaigns like "The Halo Effect" and "Invest Like a Farmer" used metaphor and wit to make financial literacy feel like something that belonged in everyday conversation, not a boardroom.
The goal the whole time was recognition. By the time I left, when someone saw something from smallcase, they knew it was from smallcase. That doesn't happen by accident. It's built deliberately, across years, one campaign at a time.
We built the visual language from the ground up: the colour system, typography, iconography, and illustration style. Every element was designed to work together and to feel distinctly smallcase, not borrowed from a generic fintech template.
A significant part of the work was paid acquisition and retargeting. Over four years, we produced over 2,000 ad creatives across digital, social, print, and out-of-home, built to bring new users in and keep smallcase top of mind. That sustained creative output contributed to a product that reached 1 crore+ installs, 1 lakh+ daily orders, and a 4.6 App Store rating.
Illustration became one of the brand's strongest assets. We developed a system that could explain complex financial ideas in plain, culturally resonant visual language. Campaigns like "The Halo Effect" and "Invest Like a Farmer" used metaphor and wit to make financial literacy feel like something that belonged in everyday conversation, not a boardroom.
The goal the whole time was recognition. By the time I left, when someone saw something from smallcase, they knew it was from smallcase. That doesn't happen by accident. It's built deliberately, across years, one campaign at a time.
© Shreya Ganeriwala 2026. All Rights Reserved.