▼ Summary
– Groww, India’s largest retail brokerage, is preparing for a multi-billion-dollar IPO after relocating its headquarters from Delaware to India last year.
– Major investors including Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, and Y Combinator are offloading approximately 5.6% of equity, representing the largest selling bloc in the offering.
– The IPO includes a primary raise of ₹10.6 billion ($121 million) and secondary sales totaling 574 million shares, expected to value the company at $9 billion.
– Groww reported strong financial performance with ₹40.6 billion in total income and ₹18.2 billion profit after tax for the fiscal year ending March 31.
– The company dominates India’s retail investment market with 37.4 million demat accounts (19% market share) and has surpassed 100 million cumulative downloads.
India’s leading retail brokerage platform, Groww, is preparing for a highly anticipated multi-billion dollar initial public offering, marking a significant milestone as the first Indian startup to list domestically after relocating its headquarters from the United States. This strategic shift positions the company to capitalize on India’s rapidly expanding capital markets and growing base of retail investors.
The Bengaluru-based fintech firm, which counts Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella among its backers alongside prominent investors like Y Combinator, Ribbit Capital, and Tiger Global, filed its draft IPO documents earlier this week. These filings reveal that three major investment firms plan to offload approximately 236 million shares, representing nearly 5.6% of the company’s total equity. This block constitutes the single largest offering, accounting for about 41% of all shares available to the public.
Groww joins a growing list of Indian startups, including Pine Labs, Razorpay, Meesho, and Zepto, that have recently moved their corporate bases back to India. Walmart-backed PhonePe completed a similar transition from Singapore in 2022, while Flipkart announced comparable plans earlier this year. For Groww, the relocation involved a tax payment of around $159 million, underscoring the financial commitment behind such strategic repositioning.
Shifting headquarters enables these companies to better align with local regulatory frameworks and meet listing requirements for Indian stock exchanges. More importantly, it allows them to tap into the surging domestic investor interest and the increasing appetite for public market offerings, reflecting the growing maturity of India’s financial ecosystem.
While global investors are leveraging the IPO as a major exit opportunity, Groww’s founders, Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, are selling only about 4 million shares, a mere 0.7% of the total offer for sale. This indicates strong confidence in the company’s future growth and a long-term commitment from its leadership team.
The IPO aims to raise ₹10.6 billion (approximately $121 million) in fresh capital, alongside a secondary sale of 574 million shares by existing shareholders. The offering is expected to value the company at around $9 billion. In the fiscal year ending March 31, Groww reported total income of ₹40.6 billion, marking a 45% year-on-year increase, with a net profit of ₹18.2 billion, a notable turnaround from the previous year’s loss, which was largely attributed to relocation expenses.
As of June, the platform boasted 37.4 million individual demat accounts, capturing nearly 19% of India’s market, along with 12.6 million active clients on the National Stock Exchange. It also supports around 17 million active systematic investment plans and serves 9 million unique mutual fund investors, making it the only investment app in India to surpass 100 million cumulative downloads.
Leading financial institutions including JPMorgan Chase, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Citigroup, Axis Bank, and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors are advising on the offering.
(Source: TechCrunch)