India has bucked the global trend in initial public offerings this year, positioning itself as an unusual bright spot for tech listings while other major markets face ongoing problems. The world’s most populous country is now gearing up for its biggest wave of IPOs in 2025.
More than 20 freshmen are set to enroll next year, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. These include business-to-business marketplaces Inframarket and Zetwerk, farm produce business CaptainFresh, professional services marketplace UrbanCompany, jewelry retailer Bluestone, security company OneAssist, and offline retailer Magicpin .
Rapid trading startup Zepto, managed workspace provider Table Space, and industrial goods platform Ofbusiness also plan to file IPOs next year. Additional companies eyeing a public listing include Rebel Foods, transportation company Porter, e-commerce platform Meesho, investment program Groww, mattress retailer Wakefit, automotive platform CarDekho, SaaS company Capillary, and and payments company Pine Labs, although other listings may extend to 2026.
If they go through as planned, the companies will join the wave that has been rising. A total of 12 startups, including seven tech firms, have gone public by 2024 in India, making it the only major market to show consistent growth in rankings over the past decade, according to Pitchbook data.
This performance is very different from other leading markets. The US recorded 22 tech-based IPOs this year, which is almost a drop from the 21 tech IPOs of 2023 and down significantly from the list of 53 the US market saw in 2020. to 117 by 2022. Europe has managed one more tech IPO than India, while the UK market remains the same. silent, with no technical listing in 2024.
“IPO markets were opening slower than we expected in March,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a recent note. “Even ‘due’ in 2022, most unicorns are still unprofitable businesses.”
Indian food delivery platform Swiggy’s $1.35 billion listing this month is the world’s largest tech IPO this year, according to JPMorgan analysts.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Anand Daniels, a partner at Accel whose firm saw the listing of two portfolio companies this month, noted that “India is becoming a promising hub for technology IPOs driven by its strong capital markets and a thriving ecosystem that continues to attract investors many investors’ profits.”
The change is significant for the Indian market, which has struggled with exit opportunities and faced skepticism from domestic institutional investors and traders about loss-making companies going public.
Abhinav Bharti, head of India’s equity capital markets for JPMorgan, explained India’s unique position due to several factors: macroeconomic growth, increased domestic capital, and political stability.
“No other country in the world gives you this political certainty and policy continuity,” he told TechCrunch in an interview. “You can argue with the policy decision, but you can’t argue with the fact that they weren’t consistent.”
The growth of the Indian financial markets has been remarkable. “One thing that has grown is the lack of capital, which is the growth of the market,” said Bharti. “If you look at 2019 to 2024, a full year average, the market size has doubled. We were at $2.6 to $2.7 trillion dollars. We are now at $5.2 trillion to $5.3 trillion. At the same time, the daily turnover tripled, from $5 billion to $15 billion.”
The increase in IPO preparations comes amid a slowdown in private market activity. “The muted environment and increased scrutiny from VCs have forced the startups to drop their high valuations for 2021,” said a partner at one of India’s largest private equity firms, who asked not to be identified. “But the most exciting thing is that it also forced them to improve their finances. The result is that many of the startups in 2021 that wanted to be ‘IPO ready’ in 5 years already are. “
In addition to Zepto, TableSpace, and others, Prosus-owned PayU recently announced plans to list in 2025, while e-commerce platform Pharmeasy is preparing for an IPO following a significant restructuring this year . Finance company MobiKwik is also planning to list next year.
Technology companies and health care firms represent more than 50% of the S&P 500 Index. The same firms make up less than 20% of India’s benchmark Nifty 50. There is a lot of growth potential for technology companies in India, Bharti said.
Going public does not mean that the company’s future is secure. Bharti said some tech startups that have gone public in recent years in India haven’t matured or proven their business models were sustainable.
“What worries me is that when you have so much excitement in the market, the eagerness of companies and shareholders to prioritize listing and trying to list before the companies are mature enough to be listed leads to risks,” he said.
