Wealthtech unicorn Groww has confidentially filed for an initial public offering under the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s pre-filing mechanism, marking its first formal step toward a stock market debut.
In a public notice released on Monday, Groww’s parent entity Billionbrains Garage Ventures Limited said the DRHP was submitted under Chapter IA of the SEBI ICDR Regulations, allowing the company to seek SEBI’s comments without immediately disclosing its IPO documents to the public.
Moneycontrol had exclusively reported on May 15 that Groww was set to file confidentially for an IPO with SEBI within two weeks, and was simultaneously raising $150 million from Singapore-based GIC as part of a $250–300 million pre-IPO round. The report had also noted that Groww’s post-money valuation in the round stood at $7 billion.
Sebi is likely to take up to two months to approve the IPO, post which Groww will file an updated DRHP, which will be accessible to the public and will have the details on the company's financial performance up to the latest quarter.
IPO valuation and size
As per sources, Groww is likely to take a conservative IPO valuation of $7-8 billion, considering the market sentiment and volatility.
Based on the valuation, a typical 10-15 percent equity dilution could imply an IPO size of around $700-920 million, making it one of the most closely tracked public issues in India’s fintech space this year.
Groww plans to list its equity shares (face value Rs 2 each) on the NSE and BSE’s mainboards. Details such as total issue size, fresh issue component, and offer-for-sale breakdown have not been disclosed yet.
The fintech firm competes with Zerodha and Upstox in online discount broking and offers mutual funds and other financial products. It was last valued at $3 billion in 2021 during its Series E round. Its key backers include Tiger Global, Peak XV Partners, and Ribbit Capital.
The stock broking firm, which has the largest active investor base, has more than doubled its FY24 revenue to Rs 3,145 crore at a consolidated level. The company’s FY25 numbers are not yet public but are likely to be part of the updated DRHP.
Its consolidated operational profit rose 17 percent to Rs 535 crore in the year ended March 2024, compared with Rs 458 crore it had reported a year back. Its consolidated revenue for FY23 stood at Rs 1,435 crore.
The one-time domicile tax of Rs 1,340 crore resulted in Groww posting a Rs 805-crore net loss at the consolidated level. Groww has moved its registered office from Delaware in the US to Bengaluru during the last fiscal.
Tough times for brokers
Groww’s IPO process is starting at a difficult time for most brokers as a few regulations have hurt the industry. The negative investor sentiment has also resulted in all top four brokers seeing a third straight month of decline in active investors.
Groww, saw around 75,000 fewer active investors in April, while the second-largest broker, Zerodha, saw its active investor base decline by more than 55,000 users.
For Bengaluru-based Zerodha, which pioneered the discount broking/zero brokerage model in India, this was the fifth consecutive month of decline in active investors. Broking firms are bracing for higher taxes on trading, lower exchange rebates, and stricter restrictions on retail futures and options trading since late last year. Most broking firms could see a 30-50 percent hit to the topline during the second half of FY 25.
Angel One, which is listed in the markets, reported a 49 percent fall in net profit for the three months ended March 31, 2025, to Rs 175 crore, compared to Rs 340 crore reported in the corresponding quarter in FY2024. Consolidated revenue sank 22 percent to Rs 1,056 crore, sinking from Rs 1,357 crore posted in the same period last year.
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