Billionbrains Garage Ventures, the firm behind the country's number one retail stockbroker and trading platform Groww, has picked as many as five investment banks for a mega $1 billion plus IPO, multiple industry sources in the know told Moneycontrol.
"Kotak Mahindra Capital, JP Morgan, Axis Capital, Citi and Motilal Oswal have been engaged for the deal. The plan is to kick off the IPO next week, file the draft documents by April-May and list by the end of the calendar year or within FY26," said one of the persons familar with the development.
In a kick-off meeting, the issuer firm discusses key plans and the roadmap for the IPO along with the roles and responsibilities for the advisors who are brought together.
According to a second person, "With multiple investors onboard, the deal is expected to be largely an OFS or offer for sale, along with a primary component." Two other persons confirmed the above. Considerations are preliminary, and details on issue size and timing may change later if required, they added.
On January 13, Moneycontrol had reported that Groww had engaged in discussions with multiple investment banks regarding its IPO and was targeting a valuation between $7-8 billion.
A fifth person told Moneycontrol that a higher valuation of up to $10 billion had also been proposed by the banks, and may come into play later, depending on the market cycles and regulatory environment.
Last year, market regulator Sebi moved to curb Futures and Options trading (which contributes to revenue of stock broking firms) citing speculation by small retail traders.
"The Groww founders are keen that a lot of value is left on the table for those who bid. A final call on IPO valuation will be taken at a later stage of the deal ," the person added.
All the five persons above spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
An email query to Groww was left unanswered at the time of publishing this article, while the bankers couldn't be reached for an immediate comment.
Groww - backed by the likes of Peak XV, Tiger Capital, Ribbit Capital and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella - last raised a series E funding of $251 million at a valuation of $3 billion on Oct 24, 2021.
Groww vs Peers
The leading full-stack financial services firm surpassed its rival Zerodha last year in terms of number of active investors. It added more than 50 lakh users as of November 2024, more than double the number it had signed up last year and has widened the lead over closest rivals Zerodha and Angel One (the listed entity is valued at less than $3 billion) over the last year.
Groww had around 1.3 crore active investors on the platform as of December 2024, based on data available with market exchanges, while Zerodha had around 81 lakh active investors. Angel One has around 78 lakh active investors.
The Bengaluru-based discount broker saw its consolidated operational profit rise 17 percent to Rs 535 crore in the year ended March 2024, compared with Rs 458 crore it had reported a year ago. Its consolidated revenue for FY23 stood at Rs 1,435 crore.
In 2017, Groww, founded by four Flipkart employees – Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal and Neeraj Singh, started as a direct mutual fund distribution platform.
Following heavy user demand, Groww added stocks in the early half of 2020 and the same year launched digital gold, ETFs, intraday trading, and IPOs in quick succession. The firm moved its registered office from Delaware in the US to Bengaluru, during the last fiscal as part of its domestic listing preparation.
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