At least four companies from Kedaara Capital’s portfolio will tap the public markets to raise capital over the next 18-24 months, Manish Kejriwal, Managing Partner and Founder of the private equity firm, said while speaking to Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum (WEF) happening in Davos.
Kedaara is currently investing out of its fourth fund which is $1.74 billion in size, one of the largest in the PE space, especially since it has an India focus.
Including Kedaara’s previous three funds, the PE giant has around 30 portfolio companies. Out of those 30, nine were from the first fund and six of those nine have already gone public which Kejriwal says is “probably a record number”.
“I would say 3-4 of our companies are ready (to IPO). We’ve got to tweak some bits like get a stronger CFO in some of them, move to a big four auditor in 1-2 of them. Then, we’ve got to match that with the opportunity in the market. But there will be at least four companies that will IPO in the next 18-24 months,” Kejriwal told Moneycontrol.
While he did not take specific names, these are likely to include new-age companies like eyewear startup Lenskart, beauty e-commerce player Purplle, among others.
Lenskart is likely to raise anywhere between $750 million and $1 billion in its IPO which is slated for 2026, at a valuation of $7-8 billion, Moneycontrol had exclusively reported earlier.
Companies going public is important as investors sell shares and make money, which helps them raise more capital that they can deploy.
While that is crucial, Kejriwal said Kedaara is in no rush.
“What’s more important: Is the management team ready? Are the companies robust enough to take public scrutiny? When a company lists, you got to make sure for the new stakeholders, the new shareholders, you do an adequate amount of disclosure. So, our governance, our disclosure levels have to be world class,” Kejriwal told Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the WEF.
Kedaara’s companies like Vishal Mega Mart went public recently and others such as Veritas Finance have filed their draft IPO papers with the markets regulator.
Along with stronger checks and balances, the management team needs to have execution chops as well before going public, as per Kejriwal.
“You’ve got to have a management team that can deal with the added pressure (of running a publicly listed company), and the added time needed to deal with a public company,” he concluded.
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