The 2026 IPO Wave: boAt, Acko, Amagi and More

Two years ago, “IPO” was a word Indian founders said carefully, the way you say a name that might curse you. Paytm’s brutal 2021 debut had made public markets feel like a punishment. In 2026, the queue to list stretches around the block. More than 45 startups are in some stage of going public, and the names are familiar: boAt, Acko, PhonePe, Zepto, Amagi, Shiprocket, Razorpay. This post is your plain-English map of the wave: who is filing, what the numbers say, and what it means if you are building a company right now.

The scoreboard so far

Start with what already happened, because it explains the rush:

• 2025 set the record. 18 new-age startups listed on Dalal Street and raised roughly Rs 41,000 crore, up from Rs 29,000 crore the year before. Lenskart, Groww, Meesho, PhysicsWallah, Ather and Pine Labs all rang the bell.
• FY26 broke it again. India saw 47 tech IPOs in the fiscal year, up 52% year on year, the highest annual tally ever, according to Tracxn. India ranked among the top three IPO markets in the world, behind only the US and China.
• Listing day was kind to some, rude to others. Urban Company popped 58% on debut, Meesho 46%, PhysicsWallah 33%. Lenskart opened in the red. Public markets are open for business, but they are reading the numbers first.

“The surge in IPO activity all points to an ecosystem that is growing up: more focussed, more fundamentals-driven, and increasingly capable of generating durable value rather than just headline valuations.”

Neha Singh, co-founder, Tracxn (via Fortune India)

Who is actually in the queue

Amagi is the furthest along. The Bengaluru SaaS company filed its RHP with a price band of Rs 343-361 for a Rs 1,789 crore issue that opened on January 13, 2026. The split tells a story: about Rs 816 crore is fresh capital for the company, while Rs 972 crore is an offer for sale, meaning early investors like Accel and Norwest are taking money off the table. FY25 revenue was Rs 1,162 crore, with losses narrowing.

boAt has SEBI approval in hand (October 2025) for a Rs 1,500 crore issue, but has pressed pause. The reason is in the math: a net profit of Rs 61 crore on Rs 3,089 crore revenue is a margin under 2%, and Rs 1,000 crore of the issue is OFS. Public investors have learned to ask whether an IPO funds growth or funds exits. boAt will likely list, but it wants a better window.

Acko is playing the longer game. The insurtech has hired ICICI Securities, Morgan Stanley and Kotak, is targeting a $2-2.5 billion valuation, plans to file its DRHP through the confidential route in late 2026 and list in the first half of 2027. The numbers are heading the right way: FY25 revenue up 34.7% to Rs 2,837 crore, net loss cut by 36.7% to Rs 424 crore.

Behind them: PhonePe, Zepto, Infra.Market, Zetwerk, Fractal Analytics, Shiprocket, Shadowfax, InCred, Moneyview, Captain Fresh and more. Razorpay is weighing a confidential DRHP for a $600-700 million issue. Zetwerk and Rentomojo have already filed draft papers. Inc42 counts 48 startups queued for listing over the next 18 months.

The IPO maths: fresh issue vs offer for sale

Every startup IPO has two parts, and reading them correctly is the quickest way to understand a listing. A fresh issue creates new shares, so the money goes into the company’s bank account. An offer for sale (OFS) sells existing shares, so the money goes to the investors and founders who sold them. The company gets nothing from an OFS except a public listing.

Take Amagi’s issue as a working example. The total was about Rs 1,789 crore, of which about Rs 816 crore was fresh capital and about Rs 972 crore was OFS (the two parts add up to roughly the headline figure, with small rounding differences). So about 46% of the issue was money for the company, and about 54% was money for sellers. That is not a criticism on its own. Accel and Norwest invested years ago, and an IPO is the cleanest way for a fund to return cash to its own investors. But a reader should know which way the money flows.

Now compare with boAt’s reported structure: a Rs 1,500 crore issue with Rs 1,000 crore of it as OFS. That is about two-thirds going to sellers, on a company whose net profit was Rs 61 crore on Rs 3,089 crore of revenue. A simple way to think about it: if the company only keeps Rs 500 crore of a Rs 1,500 crore issue, what will it do with it, and is that enough to change the growth story? Those are the questions that made the market hesitate.

How a share price is set: a worked example

Suppose a company plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore and sells shares in a price band of Rs 300-320 each. At Rs 320, it needs to sell about 3.1 crore shares (1,000 crore divided by 320). If the company has 40 crore shares after the issue, those 3.1 crore new shares are about 7.8% of the company. So the market is valuing the whole company at 40 crore shares times Rs 320, or Rs 12,800 crore.

Notice what that tells you. Selling under 8% of the company to raise Rs 1,000 crore is a small dilution for the founders. That is the appeal: public markets let a company raise a large amount while giving up a small slice. The trade-off is the loss of privacy, and the obligation to report every quarter.

Listing day: what the pop actually means

Headlines love the listing-day gain, but the number is easy to misread. A “58% pop” means the shares opened 58% above the issue price, which is a gain for people who were allotted shares and a cost for the company, which could in principle have sold at a higher price. Allotment is also the catch: in a heavily subscribed issue, a retail investor who applies for one lot often receives nothing, or one lot at best.

The 2021 class shows both ends. Zomato listed in July 2021 and opened roughly 50% above its issue price. Paytm, four months later, listed at a discount and fell sharply on its first day. Within a few years the stories had changed again. A listing day tells you about mood on that day. The next four quarters of results tell you about the business.

Globally the pattern repeats. Instacart priced its US IPO at $30 in September 2023 and opened well above that, then traded down through the following months. A strong first day is not the same as a strong first year.

What changes the day after you list

Founders who have never been through an IPO usually underestimate how different life is afterwards:

• Quarterly results, in public. Every three months you publish revenue, costs and profit, and analysts compare you with your rivals within hours.
• Lock-in periods. Promoters typically cannot sell for 18 months on the minimum contribution, and pre-IPO investors usually face a shorter lock-in. When those periods end, many shares can reach the market at once, which sometimes pushes the price down.
• Disclosure rules. Material events, from a large order to a senior resignation, have to be told to the exchanges promptly. Surprises are expensive.
• A new kind of shareholder. Mutual funds and retail investors do not sit on your board or return your calls. They vote with their sell button.

Why the sudden rush

• Exits were frozen, now they are not. Early investors in 2016-2019 vintage startups need liquidity, and IPOs are the cleanest way. In 2025, about 52% of money raised in startup IPOs was OFS.
• The returns were real. 2025’s listings paid out handsomely for early backers: one early Groww investor clocked a 196x return, Y Combinator made 109x on Meesho, Peak XV 39.5x on Pine Labs. Nothing attracts founders to the IPO path like proof that it pays.
• Private capital got picky. FY26 funding fell 18% to $11.7 billion and deal volume fell 34%. When private cheques shrink, public markets become the growth capital plan.

Three scenarios for the next 18 months

It helps to think in scenarios rather than predictions. None of these is a forecast, but each is a plausible path:

1. The window stays open. Strong listings by profitable companies keep investor appetite high. More names file their papers, and the queue of 45-plus companies converts at a steady pace. Founders in the pipeline accelerate.
2. The window narrows. A string of weak listings or a global sell-off makes investors cautious. Only the strongest companies list, and the rest wait or raise another private round. This is what happened in India in late 2021 and 2022, and it is why a plan that depends on an IPO date is fragile.
3. The window splits. Profitable, later-stage companies list easily while younger, loss-making ones struggle. This looks closest to what the data from FY26 already suggests, with late-stage firms taking a growing share of listings.

The practical lesson: build a plan that works in scenario 2, and treat scenario 1 as a bonus.

What a founder should do in the next 12 months

If an IPO is on your horizon, even a distant one, these are the jobs that cannot wait:

1. Fix the accounts. Audited, consistent financials for at least three years, with a finance team that can explain every line.
2. Know your related-party transactions. Any dealings with companies owned by founders or investors will be examined in detail. Clean them up now or document them thoroughly.
3. Check your cap table. Messy share structures, old convertible notes or disputed ESOP grants all slow down a filing.
4. Appoint independent directors and an audit committee early. Public companies need them. Having them in place for a year before filing builds credibility.
5. Read a few DRHPs. Our guide on [reading a DRHP in 20 minutes](https://foundnxt.com/drhp-decoded-read-ipo-filing-20-minutes/) shows you what your own document will be judged against.

If you are an investor, not a founder

Everything above works in reverse for people considering applying to these IPOs. Look at the split between fresh issue and OFS. Check whether the company has positive operating cash flow, not just a narrowing loss. Compare the price band with the valuation of listed rivals. And remember that a loss-making company with a great story is a different bet from a profitable company with a decent one. The first can pay off hugely or not at all; the second pays off more slowly and more predictably. Neither is wrong, but you should know which one you are buying.

Next in this series: how to actually read a DRHP in 20 minutes, and why profit came before IPO in the new startup math. For the bigger funding picture, see where the money went in 2026.

Sources

• Entrackr: Dalal Street records all-time high of 18 startup IPOs in 2025
• Fortune India: India’s tech IPO boom peaks in FY26 with record 47 listings (Tracxn)
• Entrackr: Amagi files RHP, sets Rs 343-361 price band for Rs 1,789 Cr IPO
• Inc42: Acko ropes in bankers for IPO, targets H1 2027 listing
• Planify: Upcoming IPOs to watch in 2026 (boAt, ESDS, Garuda)
• Inc42: Indian startups in 2026 – trends and predictions