In what could be a potential restart to India’s tech listings, logistics unicorn Delhivery on Thursday announced its Rs 5,235-crore initial public offering (IPO) details, which will open for subscription from May 11 and close on May 13. However, the size of the IPO has been cut to Rs 5,235 crore from Rs 7,460 crore planned earlier. The company has fixed a price band of Rs 462-487 a share for its IPO. The bidding for anchor investors will open on May 10, according to the company's RHP with SEBI.
Delhivery will hit the public market after months of inactivity following what was a breakthrough year for technology IPO. Multiple factors, such as volatility in global and domestic markets in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, tech stocks taking a beating globally and an underwhelming response to the Paytm IPO followed by price correction in most of the new-age company share prices, have led India’s start-ups to take a cautionary approach to their listing plans. Several start-ups including Mobikwik and Pharmeasy have decided to wait out on their IPO plans until public market sentiments improve.
Meanwhile, Kerala-based neo banking fintech Open became India’s 100th unicorn after raising a new funding round led by IIFL along with existing investors Temasek, Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital at a valuation of $1 billion. Open has built a digital banking platform for SMEs, startups, and freelancers and claims to have increased its customer base to 2.3 million customers in the last 12 months. The company expects the strategic investment from IIFL to help it accelerate its new product offering on SME lending.
Kota-based coaching institute Allen Career Institute secured the largest venture capital cheque this week. Bodhi Tree Systems, led by James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, bought a strategic stake worth $600 million (around Rs 4,590 crore) in the company. The company said a majority of the investment will go into its edtech foray, followed by expansion of offline centres, both in India and overseas. Bodhi Tree Systems is a newly formed platform between Lupa Systems founder and CEO James Murdoch, son of media baron Rupert Murdoch, and Uday Shankar, the former president of The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific and former chairman of Star and Disney India. The move is expected to create a large edtech competitor to market leaders Byju’s and Unacademy.
Quick commerce start-up Zepto has scored a $200 million round this week at a valuation of $900 million, falling short of the $1 billion valuation required to become a unicorn. The nine-month-old company raised the new round led by Y Combinator Continuity along with a new investor, Kaiser Permanente. Existing investors, including Nexus Venture Partners, Glade Brook Capital and Lachy Groom, have participated in the round. The fresh fund comes nearly three months after Zepto secured $100 million in a Series C round at a $570 million valuation.
Other significant-tech venture capital investments this week went to agritech company Absolute ($100 million), cybersecurity firm Traceable AI ($60 million), and dental tech brand toothsi ($40 million).