{"id":17966,"date":"2026-07-31T18:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/31\/indias-ipo-wave-in-2026-why-startups-are-racing-to-go-public\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:24:00","slug":"indias-ipo-wave-in-2026-why-startups-are-racing-to-go-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/31\/indias-ipo-wave-in-2026-why-startups-are-racing-to-go-public\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s IPO Wave in 2026: Why Startups Are Racing to Go Public"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 31: <\/strong>Anyone sitting in a startup boardroom in Bengaluru, Gurugram, or Mumbai this year can\u2019t escape the buzz around those three letters: IPO. After playing it safe for a while, India\u2019s startups are now diving headfirst into the public markets. 2026 already looks set to smash records for sheer IPO activity.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Pipeline Like No Other<\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right now, more than 48 startups are hustling to go public, and the line-up reads like a hit list of Indian tech: Zepto, PhonePe, OYO, Flipkart, Razorpay, boAt, and a long list beyond that. Nearly 30 have already put their draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) into SEBI\u2019s hands. At least two dozen more are getting their bankers sorted and paperwork done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn\u2019t just a minor rebound. The momentum is real. In 2025, 18 startups hit the public markets and pulled in over \u20b941,000 crore\u2014a record at the time. The class of 2026 should blow past that. Just a handful of big names\u2014Flipkart, Zepto, OYO, InMobi, Fractal, and Zetwerk\u2014could raise over \u20b950,000 crore, and if you count everyone, startup or not, mainboard issuers are eyeing a combined \u20b92.5 to \u20b92.65 lakh crore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A couple of firms already dipped a toe in this year: logistics player Shadowfax and adtech company Amagi both completed their IPOs early in 2026. In a way, they\u2019re test cases, and so far the market\u2019s reception has been closely watched.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Now?<\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not just one thing driving this rush.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">India\u2019s economy keeps maturing. Domestic consumers are still spending, government is pouring money into infrastructure, and the country\u2019s broader macro story holds up even as global markets wobble. That\u2019s giving bankers and founders the confidence to go public now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founders and early investors want liquidity\u2014not just more funding. Remember, from 2018 to 2022, a lot of these companies raised huge venture rounds from firms like SoftBank, Accel, Peak XV, Tiger Global, Prosus, even Walmart. Many of those investors have held on for years and are ready for an exit. Listing gives everyone a chance to cash out\u2014founders, backers, and employees with ESOPs. Last year alone, around \u20b98,700 crore in employee stock turned liquid thanks to IPOs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Governance is front and center now. Look at boAt. Before their latest DRHP, co-founders Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta handed day-to-day control to Gaurav Nayyar, who came in as CEO. It\u2019s a move aimed right at institutional investors\u2014a message that the company is taking governance seriously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not just the usual suspects, either. Even deep-tech is joining the game. Garuda Aerospace, a dronetech company out of Chennai, quietly filed for an IPO in April 2026, aiming to raise up to \u20b9750 crore. It\u2019s smaller than the giants, but it shows that even India\u2019s cutting-edge tech players are ready for public scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even the country\u2019s biggest name is watching closely. Reliance Jio Platforms might file for what could become India\u2019s largest-ever IPO\u2014just waiting for SEBI\u2019s new rules to settle before making a move.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Investors Are Getting Choosier<\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s where things get interesting. This IPO rush is happening right after a tough lesson. Of the 100-plus mainboard IPOs in 2025, nearly half now trade below their issue price\u2014even though subscription numbers at launch looked great. Retail investors took notice, and average retail subscription rates dropped from around 34x in 2024 to 26x in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s forced a rethink on both sides. According to Inc42, almost half of investors now say they care about strong fundamentals\u2014real profits, lower burn, and solid business models\u2014over sexy growth stories alone. That\u2019s a change from the pre-2022 days when just talking up your growth could land you a blockbuster listing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take Cult.fit, the fitness brand. It\u2019s got heavy-hitter backers like Zomato, Accel, Tata Digital, Temasek, and lined up five big banks to steer a \u20b92,500 crore IPO targeting a $2 billion valuation. But getting there hasn\u2019t been about wild consumer numbers\u2014it\u2019s been years of tightening costs and proving real unit economics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another trend: in 2025, big IPOs relied heavily on the \u201coffer-for-sale\u201d model\u2014existing investors selling down their stakes\u2014which made up 63% of proceeds in the big listings. That signals something: most of these IPOs are about letting existing investors cash out, not just raising fresh money for growth. Maybe not surprising that post-listing performance has been uneven.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Founders Need to Know<\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This IPO wave sends a pretty clear message: building a company in India isn\u2019t just about raising the next big round anymore. The founders getting rewarded now are the ones who focus on governance, predictable revenue, and real financial discipline. The days when you could win on a vision and a deck alone seem over\u2014public markets demand more than VCs once did.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s Next?<\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If even half the startups in the pipeline actually make it to the market in 2026, it\u2019s a major milestone. The ecosystem that spent a decade learning how to build now has to prove it can deliver quarter after quarter with everyone watching. Domestic institutional investors are stepping in, anchoring these deals and giving some cushion even if retail enthusiasm dips. Whether that\u2019ll be enough to prevent a repeat of 2025\u2019s post-listing slump\u2014well, that\u2019s on the mind of every founder filling out a DRHP right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing\u2019s certain: the path to Dalal Street has never been more crowded, and the companies getting on it have changed. They\u2019re leaner. They\u2019re older. And, for the first time, a lot of them are being asked to deliver real profits, not just pitch their vision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pnndigital.com\/category\/business\/\">PNN Business<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 31: Anyone sitting in a startup boardroom in Bengaluru, Gurugram, or Mumbai this year can\u2019t escape the buzz around those three letters: IPO. After playing it safe for a while, India\u2019s startups are now diving headfirst into the public markets. 2026 already looks set to smash records for sheer IPO activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-17966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thankyoubharat.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}