As India’s pipeline of new-age initial public offerings (IPOs) swells, the ecosystem must look beyond big-ticket listings and give due attention to small-cap startups going public as well, said Ashish Agrawal, managing director at Peak XV Partners.
In an interview to ET, Agrawal, who leads fintech investments at the venture capital firm, also underscored the importance of a stable and predictable regulatory environment for the sector.
“We should celebrate companies going public at a $10 billion market cap… but equally celebrate those listing at $1 billion. This is a feature of the Indian capital markets that companies can list at a small market cap. We shouldn’t focus only on large listings. Many of the younger companies are early in their journeys and provide a good compounding opportunity for retail or public market investors to grow their wealth,” Agrawal said, underscoring the importance of fundraising for companies of all sizes through IPOs.
An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Agrawal joined the venture capital firm (then Sequoia Capital India) in 2013 as an analyst and rose to the position of managing director in 2021. His standout bet has been on stockbroking startup Groww, which has surged multifold in six years.
Agrawal was adjudged winner of the coveted Midas Touch category for best investor at the ET Startup Awards 2025. The elite jury of the awards praised Agrawal’s conviction in supporting Groww in 2019, when India’s stock broking market was dominated by banks and Zerodha. Peak XV Partners doubled down in subsequent rounds, helping Groww scale up to a $7 billion valuation.
Groww is now planning to make its debut on the Indian bourses at a valuation of $7-9 billion, ET had reported earlier. Besides Groww, Agrawal has backed 24 companies at Peak XV Partners. He also worked closely with Zomato as an analyst while the investment firm held a position in the food delivery platform.
“While Groww is going public, I also work with several other companies like Leap in the study-abroad space, Progcap in supply chain financing, Stanza Living in student housing and ecommerce enabler GoKwik. These are sizable businesses, many already profitable or close to it. Over the next few years, several of them will go public. Not all may be $10-billion outcomes, but they’ll span a wide range of market caps… and that’s something we should truly cherish,” he said.
Peak XV is expected to make around $200-250 million from Groww’s IPO, in which it is offloading 158 million shares. The VC firm deployed a total of $30-35 million in Groww, and its pre-IPO stake is worth $1.4-1.5 billion.
In a year when several early-stage investors including Peak XV Partners, Accel, Elevation Capital and others are witnessing a slew of portfolio companies such as Groww, Meesho, Urban Company, Curefoods, Shadowfax and Wakefit going public, Agarwal said that he did not see IPOs as exit events but rather as markers of the ecosystem’s maturity. “It’s good for the country to have more listed companies,” he said.
“Zomato is a great example of a company that created significant value before its IPO, and continued to deliver strong value even after listing… Groww, though less than a decade old, has already created substantial value in its first ten years. The markets that Groww and Zomato operate in are deep and hold immense growth potential, positioning both companies to compound meaningfully for many years, if not decades, ahead,” Agarwal said. “If we believe the company will compound for the years to come, the IPO doesn’t change the time frame for us as an investor.”
Regulatory stability
As a number of fintech startups look to go public, Agrawal emphasised the need for regulatory stability.
Besides Groww, new-age financial services firms that are at various stages of their plans to list include PhonePe, Pine Labs, Turtlemint and BharatPe.
“In financial services and fintech, we want to be black and white on regulations…we don’t want to operate in the grey zone. Regulators like Sebi, RBI and IRDAI have done an excellent job of being progressive from a business standpoint while safeguarding investor and user interests, and maintaining overall ecosystem stability,” Agrawal said. “We encourage our companies to stay fully compliant and take a conservative approach where needed, even if that occasionally slows growth… and we’re completely fine with that.”
ET has reported on various regulatory interventions impacting sub-segments of the fintech industry, including payments, lending and wealthtech.
Groww’s IPO, too, comes at a time when the stockbroking industry is grappling with profitability pressures following a regulatory clampdown on futures and options trading. The move has eroded about 30% of revenue for most major players, including Groww.
“I do think stability is very important and that is an ask we have from the central government and the various regulators. Frequent changes… not only the big ones but even small, tactical ones can disrupt businesses,” Agrawal said. “Founders oftentimes end up worrying about the next regulatory circular that can upend their business… instead of focusing on innovation and customer delight. I think to that extent, we should strive for greater policy predictability.”
In an interview to ET, Agrawal, who leads fintech investments at the venture capital firm, also underscored the importance of a stable and predictable regulatory environment for the sector.
“We should celebrate companies going public at a $10 billion market cap… but equally celebrate those listing at $1 billion. This is a feature of the Indian capital markets that companies can list at a small market cap. We shouldn’t focus only on large listings. Many of the younger companies are early in their journeys and provide a good compounding opportunity for retail or public market investors to grow their wealth,” Agrawal said, underscoring the importance of fundraising for companies of all sizes through IPOs.
An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Agrawal joined the venture capital firm (then Sequoia Capital India) in 2013 as an analyst and rose to the position of managing director in 2021. His standout bet has been on stockbroking startup Groww, which has surged multifold in six years.
Agrawal was adjudged winner of the coveted Midas Touch category for best investor at the ET Startup Awards 2025. The elite jury of the awards praised Agrawal’s conviction in supporting Groww in 2019, when India’s stock broking market was dominated by banks and Zerodha. Peak XV Partners doubled down in subsequent rounds, helping Groww scale up to a $7 billion valuation.
Groww is now planning to make its debut on the Indian bourses at a valuation of $7-9 billion, ET had reported earlier. Besides Groww, Agrawal has backed 24 companies at Peak XV Partners. He also worked closely with Zomato as an analyst while the investment firm held a position in the food delivery platform.
“While Groww is going public, I also work with several other companies like Leap in the study-abroad space, Progcap in supply chain financing, Stanza Living in student housing and ecommerce enabler GoKwik. These are sizable businesses, many already profitable or close to it. Over the next few years, several of them will go public. Not all may be $10-billion outcomes, but they’ll span a wide range of market caps… and that’s something we should truly cherish,” he said.
Peak XV is expected to make around $200-250 million from Groww’s IPO, in which it is offloading 158 million shares. The VC firm deployed a total of $30-35 million in Groww, and its pre-IPO stake is worth $1.4-1.5 billion.
In a year when several early-stage investors including Peak XV Partners, Accel, Elevation Capital and others are witnessing a slew of portfolio companies such as Groww, Meesho, Urban Company, Curefoods, Shadowfax and Wakefit going public, Agarwal said that he did not see IPOs as exit events but rather as markers of the ecosystem’s maturity. “It’s good for the country to have more listed companies,” he said.
“Zomato is a great example of a company that created significant value before its IPO, and continued to deliver strong value even after listing… Groww, though less than a decade old, has already created substantial value in its first ten years. The markets that Groww and Zomato operate in are deep and hold immense growth potential, positioning both companies to compound meaningfully for many years, if not decades, ahead,” Agarwal said. “If we believe the company will compound for the years to come, the IPO doesn’t change the time frame for us as an investor.”
Regulatory stability
As a number of fintech startups look to go public, Agrawal emphasised the need for regulatory stability.
Besides Groww, new-age financial services firms that are at various stages of their plans to list include PhonePe, Pine Labs, Turtlemint and BharatPe.
“In financial services and fintech, we want to be black and white on regulations…we don’t want to operate in the grey zone. Regulators like Sebi, RBI and IRDAI have done an excellent job of being progressive from a business standpoint while safeguarding investor and user interests, and maintaining overall ecosystem stability,” Agrawal said. “We encourage our companies to stay fully compliant and take a conservative approach where needed, even if that occasionally slows growth… and we’re completely fine with that.”
ET has reported on various regulatory interventions impacting sub-segments of the fintech industry, including payments, lending and wealthtech.
Groww’s IPO, too, comes at a time when the stockbroking industry is grappling with profitability pressures following a regulatory clampdown on futures and options trading. The move has eroded about 30% of revenue for most major players, including Groww.
“I do think stability is very important and that is an ask we have from the central government and the various regulators. Frequent changes… not only the big ones but even small, tactical ones can disrupt businesses,” Agrawal said. “Founders oftentimes end up worrying about the next regulatory circular that can upend their business… instead of focusing on innovation and customer delight. I think to that extent, we should strive for greater policy predictability.”
