2025 IPOs generate ₹15,000cr for start-up investors
What's the story
The ongoing IPO season of 2025 has proven to be a goldmine for venture and growth investors in India's start-up ecosystem. A total of six new-age firms: Urban Company, Lenskart, Groww, Ather Energy, Bluestone and Pine Lab, have collectively generated over ₹15,000 crore ($1.6 billion) in cash liquidity for their early- and late-stage shareholders, according to The Economic Times.
Additional gains
Investors gain over $8 billion in mark-to-market value
Apart from the realized gains, investors also have over $8 billion in mark-to-market value on the shares they still hold. This is due to the strong post-listing performance of some companies. The biggest paper gains have been for Peak XV's residual stake in wealth-tech platform Groww, which is now valued at around $1.7 billion. SoftBank's position in Lenskart worth $1.1 billion comes next.
International gains
Y Combinator and others profit from Groww's IPO
Silicon Valley's startup accelerator Y Combinator has also made huge returns on Groww. It sold about a 2% stake in the firm through the offer-for-sale (OFS) portion of the IPO and still holds around 10%. New York-based Tiger Global and Palo Alto-headquartered Ribbit Capital have both sold some of their shareholding in Groww during its IPO.
Major players
Peak XV Partners leads in cash exits
Peak XV Partners has bagged the biggest cash exits from Groww and Pine Labs, two of its major investments. Accel, Elevation Capital and SoftBank also sold portions of their holdings across Lenskart, Ather, BlueStone and Urban Company at a premium. Between Groww and Pine Labs, Peak XV Partners sold shares worth over ₹2,000 crore through OFS.
Investor success
Accel and Elevation Capital see strong returns
In the cases of Urban Company and BlueStone, early investors such as Accel and Elevation Capital made huge returns. Accel first invested in jewelry retailer BlueStone in 2012 and has since participated in multiple funding rounds for the company. The venture capital firm invested a total of ₹200-215 crore in BlueStone and is now sitting on paper gains six times its investment, including realized and unrealized returns.
High stakes
Urban Company and Groww's IPOs yield high returns
With Urban Company, where Accel was the earliest institutional backer along with Elevation Capital, the VC fund made paper gains of 29 times its investment of ₹70-75 crore. Elevation Capital invested ₹95-100 crore across stages in the at-home services platform and saw a multiple of 19x on its investment. In Groww's IPO, Y Combinator took out ₹1,054 crore marking its first public market exit in India.