With homegrown unicorns, India’s IPO market heats up

Zomato and Paytm, both unicorns, are coming to a market already enjoying blockbuster listings for a few months.

After clocking its busiest first half since at least 2009, India’s IPO market is gearing up for an even bigger boom as a cluster of homegrown startups including Ant Group Co.-backed Zomato Ltd. prepare to go public. Zomato, an online food delivery platform, started taking public orders Wednesday for its hotly-anticipated $1.3 billion initial public offering. Its IPO is set to be India’s biggest since March 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Startups that are big enough and mature have outgrown the venture capital and private equity funds’ ability to invest,” said Manisha Girotra, country head for Moelis & Co. “These companies which need larger pool of capital to grow are the ones readying to go to the public market.”