# VC10X Pulse - The Land of Crazy Startup IPOs

An episode of [VC10X - Investing, Venture Capital, Asset Management, Family Office, Wealth Management](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1632806986), 20 Nov 2025, 14 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/a453ddd4/podcast/play/111457111/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-10-20%2F412839191-44100-2-5115bf33fd3dd.mp3

India's IPO market has completely lost its mind. Groww is worth more than the Bombay Stock Exchange (as of 18th Nov '25 the date of recording). PhysicsWallah is losing ₹243 crore but got a 33% listing pop. And companies are literally moving their headquarters from the US to India just to IPO here. What's going on? In this deep dive, we expose the wild world of Indian startup IPOs. You'll discover how companies magically become profitable right before going public, why retail investors are gambling billions on unprofitable startups, and the shocking "reverse flip" trend where unicorns are abandoning Silicon Valley for Mumbai's markets. This is the untold story of the biggest IPO boom and potential bubble in the world right now. Note- The video was recorded on 18th Nov '25, all numbers and stock prices are true to that date. Disclaimer: This video is for educational and informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Please do your own research or consult a registered financial advisor before making investment decisions. The creator is not responsible for any profits or losses resulting from investment decisions. KEY TAKEAWAYS: ✅ How Groww became worth more than the 150-year-old Bombay Stock Exchange ✅ Why PhysicsWallah got a 33% listing gain despite losing ₹243 crore ✅ The accounting tricks companies use to become "profitable" before IPOs ✅ Why 70+ startups are moving from US/Singapore to India (reverse flipping) ✅ India vs USA IPO markets: lower requirements, higher valuations, unlimited appetite FEATURED COMPANIES: Groww: ₹1.1 lakh crore valuation (more than BSE itself on 18th Nov '25) Lenskart: Years of losses, then ₹297 crore profit in FY25—just before IPO PhysicsWallah: Loss-making but 33% listing gains Pine Labs: 2.5x oversubscribed despite unclear profitability Zomato, Paytm, Nykaa, Ola Electric: The cautionary tales TIMESTAMPS: (0:00) Introduction (0:33) Groww IPO (1:54) Lenskart IPO (2:36) Pine Labs IPO (3:15) Physicswallah (4:51) Why & how do companies turn profitable just before the IPO? (6:51) Class of '21 - Zomato, Paytm, Nykaa (9:45) India vs USA IPO Markets (10:46) Reverse Flipping (12:04) Why are companies reverse flipping to India? (13:11) Is indian IPO market visionary or plain crazy? (13:58) Closing SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VC & STARTUP STRATEGY VC10X breaks down the most important stories in tech, startups, and investing every week. If you want actionable insights to help you build or invest in the next great company, subscribe now. LET'S CONNECT Website: https://VC10X.com X / Twitter: https://x.com/choubeysahab LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab COMMENT BELOW Is India's IPO market the future or a bubble waiting to pop? Have you invested in any of these companies? Let us know in the comments. #IndiaIPO #Groww #PhysicsWallah #Lenskart #StartupIndia #VentureCapital #IPOMarket #RetailInvesting #ZomatoIPO #PaytmIPO

## Transcript

[0:00] India's IPO market has gone absolutely crazy.
[0:04] We're talking about a world where newly public startups are
[0:08] worth more than 100 year old stock exchanges, where companies
[0:11] that were making losses yesterday are suddenly printing
[0:14] money right before they go public, and where retail
[0:17] investors are throwing billions at companies trading AT100X
[0:20] earnings just because the grey market premium looks good.
[0:24] Welcome to the land of crazy. IPOs.
[0:26] Is this brilliance or are we watching the biggest retail
[0:29] investor trap in history? Let's find out.
[0:34] Let's start with the most insane start of 2025.
[0:37] A fintech startup that's only 8 years old is now worth more than
[0:40] the Bombay Stock Exchange, an institution that's been around
[0:44] for 150 years. I'm talking about Grow.
[0:48] Grows IPO opened at 95 to ₹100 per share in November 2025.
[0:53] Within days, their stocks sold 94% taking it's market cap to
[0:57] over 1.1 lakh crore. That is $13 billion.
[1:02] To put that in perspective, Grow is now worth more than the
[1:05] Bombay Stock Exchange, the very platform it trades on.
[1:09] The IPO was oversubscribed multiple times.
[1:11] Retail investors could not get enough.
[1:13] But here's where it gets interesting.
[1:15] Grow is trading at 34 to 44 times it's FY25 earnings nearly
[1:21] double what its competitors like Angel One that is trading at 20X
[1:25] and Anand Rathi that is trading AT25X.
[1:28] The fundamentals Revenue grew from 1141 crores in FY23 to 3902
[1:36] crore in FY25. Profit jumped from 458 crore to
[1:40] 1824 crore. Impressive growth, no doubt.
[1:44] But here's the question, does that justify being worth more
[1:47] than a 150 year old institution? The market says yes, logic says
[1:52] maybe not. Next up, Lenscot valued at $8.4
[1:56] billion at its IPO. The IPO was fully subscribed
[2:00] with a grey market premium of worth ₹75, a signal that retail
[2:04] investors were betting big. Here's the thing, Lenskart was
[2:08] losing money for years. FY22 loss of 102 crores, FY23
[2:13] loss of 64,00,00,000. FY24 loss of 10,00,00,000.
[2:17] But then miraculously, FY25 marked the first year of
[2:21] profitability. 297 crore in profit.
[2:24] Convenient timing, right? Just in time for the IPO
[2:27] roadshow. Suddenly the story changes from
[2:30] we are burning cash to grow to we are profitable sustainable
[2:33] business and the market rewarded them with the sky high
[2:36] valuation. Then they spine lapse the
[2:38] digital payments giant. IPO price 210 to ₹221.00 per
[2:43] share. Total raise 3900 crores.
[2:47] Subscription was solid. Institutional investors
[2:50] subscribed 4X overall around 2.5 X.
[2:54] The stock listed at a 9.5% premium, opening at 242 versus
[2:59] the issue price of 221. The catch?
[3:03] The company's profitability details are murky.
[3:06] It's all about growth and market share.
[3:08] But investors didn't care. The name recognition in the
[3:12] promise of India's digital payment boom was enough.
[3:15] And here's the wildest one. Physics Walla, the edtech
[3:17] Unicorn. The company raised 3480 crore
[3:20] through its IPO, priced at ₹109 per share.
[3:24] Initial response muted. The IPO was only subscribed 1.81
[3:28] * 1 of the weakest responses of the year.
[3:30] Retail investors barely showed up, with only 48% of the retail
[3:34] portion getting bits. But then something interesting
[3:37] happened. Institutional investors, the QIB
[3:40] stepped in and subscribed 2.7 X. The grey market premium was only
[3:44] ₹14, suggesting a modest 12 to 13% listing gain.
[3:49] What actually happened? On the listing day, the stock
[3:51] opened at ₹145 on National Stock Exchange, a massive 33% premium
[3:56] over the IPO price. It even does ₹162.00 during the
[4:01] day, hitting nearly 50% gains. This made Physics Swallow the
[4:05] second best New Age IPO listing of 2025, behind only urban
[4:09] companies. 57.5% gain. Now here's the kicker.
[4:13] Physics Swallow is still losing money.
[4:15] FI 23 loss of 84,00,00,000, FI 24 loss of 1131 crore.
[4:22] FI 25 loss of 243 crore and in Q1, FI 26 still unprofitable.
[4:30] Yet the market gave it a 40,000 crore valuation on the listing
[4:34] day. Why?
[4:35] Because in India's IPO, market losses don't matter anymore, or
[4:39] at least they don't seem to. What matters is story.
[4:43] And Physics Walla has a great one, affordable education,
[4:46] hybrid offline online model and a charismatic founder.
[4:49] So here's the question no one is asking.
[4:51] Why do all these companies except Physics Walla suddenly
[4:55] become profitable right before their IPO?
[4:58] Is it a coincidence or is it strategic?
[5:01] Let's look at the pattern. Lenscott years of losses then
[5:05] boom. 297 crore profit in FY25 right before the IPO.
[5:10] GROW reported an 805 crore loss in FY25 due to one time tax
[5:16] payment for shifting domicile from the US to India.
[5:19] But in FY25, suddenly 1824 crore profit.
[5:23] Nika lost 16,00,00,000 in FY20, then reported a 61.9 crore
[5:27] profit in FY21, the year it went public.
[5:31] Somato was losing over 2000 crores a year for years.
[5:36] Then just before the 2021 IPO, losses narrowed significantly.
[5:40] Notice the pattern? Companies magically turn
[5:43] profitable right when they need to impress public market
[5:46] investors. How do they do this?
[5:48] Here's how it works #1 Cut marketing spend aggressively.
[5:52] Paytm, for example, slashed marketing by 62% before it's IPO
[5:56] #2 Delay expansion plans, stop opening new stores, freeze
[6:00] hiring, postpone product launches #3 Accounting
[6:03] adjustments, one time write downs, reclassifying expenses,
[6:07] recognizing revenue early #4 unit economics slate of hand.
[6:11] So MATO improved it's contribution margin per order
[6:14] right before it's IPO, even though the total revenue
[6:17] actually fell by 23%. The goal is to create a
[6:21] profitable quarter or year that can be plastered on the IPO
[6:24] prospectus. Once the IPO is done and the
[6:27] money is raised, the spending resumes.
[6:29] But physics follow proved you don't even need to do that
[6:32] anymore. You can be openly unprofitable,
[6:34] losing 243 crores per year and still get a successful IPO with
[6:38] the 33% listing game. That tells you everything you
[6:41] need to know. While the Indian startup IPO
[6:43] market right now, fundamentals are optional.
[6:46] The story is everything. Now, this isn't the first time
[6:49] India has gone IPO crazy. Let's look at the classes 2021.
[6:53] So, MATO went public in July 2021 at ₹76 per share.
[6:58] The IPO was massively oversubscribed.
[7:00] The stock sold on day one. But here's the reality.
[7:04] So, MATO had been losing billions for years at IPO.
[7:07] It was still unprofitable. The stock crashed after the hype
[7:10] faded, falling over 60% at one point.
[7:13] Today, it's recovered and trades at a crazy high PE multiple, but
[7:17] only because it's finally tone consistently profitable in 2024.
[7:22] Then there's Paytm, India's largest ever IPO at the time
[7:26] raised 18,300 crores. The company was still losing
[7:30] 1710 crore a year at IPO despite cutting its losses by 42%.
[7:36] The stock listed then immediately tanked.
[7:39] It fell over 75% from its IPO price.
[7:42] Retail investor lost millions. Why?
[7:44] Because the fundamentals didn't support the valuation.
[7:47] It was all hype. Nika is a rare success story.
[7:50] It went public in 2021. Actually was profitable. 61.9
[7:54] crore in FI 21 and the stock has held up.
[7:58] But even Nika traits at insane multiples price to sales of over
[8:02] 200 X at one point. That's not rational, that's
[8:05] euphoria. And then there's Ola Electric.
[8:08] The EV startup went public in 2024 despite losing 1584 crore
[8:14] in FY24. The IPO was oversubscribed, the
[8:17] stock surged and then reality hit.
[8:20] The stock has since crashed as production issues, customer
[8:23] complaints and continued losses mounted.
[8:25] Yet, at IPO, retail investors came flocking based on the hype
[8:29] alone. So why do Indian retail
[8:31] investors keep falling? For this three reasons.
[8:34] Reason 1. Green Market Premium FOMO The
[8:37] grey market premium is the unofficial premium at which IPO
[8:40] shares trade before they are officially listed.
[8:43] If the GMP is ₹50 to ₹75, retail investors think I'll make
[8:48] instant money on day one, so they subscribe without looking
[8:51] at the fundamentals. Physics Wallahs GMP was only
[8:54] ₹14, but it listed out of 33% premium, beating even the grey
[8:59] market expectations. That kind of surprise win
[9:02] creates for more for the next IPO.
[9:04] Reason 2. The next big thing narrative.
[9:06] Investors believe that these companies are the next Amazon
[9:09] and the next Google. The Indian growth story is real.
[9:13] 500 million Internet users, rising incomes and digital
[9:16] adoption. But that doesn't mean every
[9:19] startup deserves A50X valuation. Yet the market prices them like
[9:23] they're all going to be trillion dollar companies.
[9:26] Reason 3. Liquidity and scarcity.
[9:28] India's stock market has flooded with liquidity.
[9:31] Millions of new detail investors joined during COVID.
[9:34] There's more money than quality IPOs.
[9:36] So when a hot IPO comes along, there's a Stampede.
[9:39] It's not about the business, it's about getting a piece of
[9:41] the action. Now here's where this story gets
[9:44] even more interesting. Let's compare India's IPO mania
[9:47] to the US market and why companies are literally packing
[9:50] up and moving from the US to India just to go public.
[9:53] In the US, investors got burned by 2021 Spark bubble Companies
[9:58] like Weaver, Robin Hood and Peloton crashed.
[10:01] Now US investors are sceptical. They demand profitability,
[10:04] reasonable valuations and a clear path to growth.
[10:07] Instacart's IPO flat, Birkenstock flopped.
[10:11] Even ARM, the chip designer, had a muted debut.
[10:14] And here's the kicker. To list on US exchanges, you
[10:17] typically need 400 to $500 million in annual revenue.
[10:21] That's a massive bar that most Indian startup simply can't
[10:23] clear. While in India, a software
[10:25] company with just 50 to $60 million in revenue can list
[10:29] successfully, In Cuban 2025 alone, India had 62 IP OS
[10:33] raising $2.8 billion, accounting for 22% of global IPO action.
[10:38] The math is simple. Easier listing requirements,
[10:41] higher valuations and retail investors with unlimited
[10:44] appetite for growth stories. And this brings us to the most
[10:47] fascinating trend, reverse flipping.
[10:49] Over 40 Indian startups are currently in the process of
[10:52] moving their legal headquarters from the US, Singapore and other
[10:55] countries back to India, specifically to take advantage
[10:58] of the favourable IPO market. Let me give you some examples.
[11:01] Grow, originally incorporated in Delaware, USA, moved its parent
[11:06] entity back to India in March 2024, just months before its
[11:09] blockbuster IPO. The company paid 1340 crores in
[11:14] taxes to make the shift. Phone pay shifted from Singapore
[11:17] to India in 2022, Paid a staggering 8000 crore in taxes
[11:21] to complete the move. Zepto completed the reverse
[11:25] merger from Singapore to India in January 2025, calling it a
[11:28] historic milestone and a sign of long term confidence in the
[11:32] Indian capital markets. Misho shifted domicile from the
[11:35] US to India in 2025 ahead of its planned IPO.
[11:39] Reza Pay currently shifting from the US to India and paying over
[11:42] $100 million in taxes to do it. Flipkart board approved moving
[11:46] from Singapore to India ahead of its 2026 IPO.
[11:50] These aren't small companies. These are unicorns, billion
[11:52] dollar startups that were originally founded and
[11:54] headquartered in the US or Singapore specifically to access
[11:57] global capital. But now they are coming home.
[12:01] Why? Because India's IPO market is
[12:03] more lucrative. But why are they doing this?
[12:06] Three reasons #1 access to capital, Indian retail and
[12:09] institutional investors are throwing money at tech, IP, OS.
[12:12] The demand is insatiable #2 lower listing environments.
[12:16] You don't need $500 million in your renew like you do in the US
[12:20] 50 to $60 million is enough #3 higher valuations.
[12:25] Indian markets are giving these companies 2X to 3X the multiples
[12:28] they get in the US. The Indian government has made
[12:30] it easier to In 2024, they removed the requirement for
[12:33] National Company lottery Buell approval for mergers, cutting
[12:36] the process from over a year to just three to six months.
[12:40] They've also created Gift City, India's answer to Singapore and
[12:43] Delaware, offering tax incentives and simplified
[12:45] compliance. So let me get this straight.
[12:48] Indian startups that spent years raising money in the US,
[12:51] structured themselves under Delaware law and build their
[12:54] entire cap table around foreign investors are now paying
[12:56] hundreds of millions in taxes to move back to India just to make
[12:59] an IPO here instead of the US? That tells you everything about
[13:03] the difference between the two markets. the US wants proof.
[13:06] India just wants the story. And right now, the story is
[13:10] worth more. So is India's IPO market
[13:13] visionary or just plain crazy? Here's the truth.
[13:16] Some of these companies will become giants.
[13:18] Grow might be the Robin Hunt of India.
[13:21] So matter might dominate food delivery for decades.
[13:23] Physics Wallah might revolutionize education.
[13:25] But many won't. And when you're paying 50X100X
[13:28] earnings or buying companies that are openly losing money,
[13:32] you're not investing. You're gambling the sudden
[13:34] profitability before IPOs. That's not a coincidence, it's a
[13:38] strategy. Companies moving their entire
[13:40] legal headquarters from the US to India?
[13:42] Just to list here. That's not patriotism, it's
[13:45] arbitrage. And retail investors are the
[13:47] ones left holding the bag when the music stops.
[13:50] My advice, Look at the fundamentals, ignore the GMP and
[13:53] remember in the long run, valuations always revert to
[13:57] reality. If you enjoy this deep dive, hit
[13:59] that subscribe button, drop a comment.
[14:01] What's the craziest IPO you've seen?
[14:04] Do you think India's market is the future or above all, waiting
[14:07] to pop? We'll see you next week with
[14:09] more from the front lines of Global Investing VC10X.

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