According to Forbes, Bangalore-based Billionbrains Garage Ventures—parent company of Indian online brokerage Groww—has seen its shares rally for five consecutive days since listing on November 12, climbing 89% before opening 10% lower Wednesday morning. The surge sent the company’s market cap to 1.2 trillion rupees ($13.2 billion) and made cofounder and CEO Lalit Keshre a billionaire, with his 9% stake valued at $1.2 billion. The IPO raised 66 billion rupees by selling 663 million shares at 100 rupees each and was 18 times oversubscribed, with proceeds earmarked for cloud infrastructure expansion, marketing, and acquisitions. Groww now serves nearly 20 million users and reported 40.6 billion rupees in revenue for the year ended March 2025, with net profit hitting 18.2 billion rupees.
India’s IPO Frenzy
Here’s the thing—this isn’t just about one company hitting it big. India’s IPO market is absolutely on fire right now. Companies have raised a record $21 billion from IPOs in 2024 alone, with $18 billion coming from maiden share sales. And we’re not even done yet—Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio has a mega IPO in the pipeline. Basically, international investors are betting big on India’s economic growth story, and fintech companies like Groww are riding that wave perfectly.
Winner Take Most
What’s really interesting is how this creates a snowball effect. Groww’s success isn’t happening in a vacuum—it’s part of a broader trend where the winners in India’s digital finance space are getting disproportionately rewarded. The company’s the only investment app in India that’s been downloaded more than 100 million times, according to their prospectus. That kind of scale creates network effects that are incredibly hard for competitors to overcome. And when you combine that with an IPO boom? You get these massive wealth creation events that basically cement market leadership.
From Farm to Fintech
Keshre’s story is particularly compelling. Born into a farming family in Madhya Pradesh, he worked his way through IIT Bombay, held senior roles at Flipkart, and now runs a company worth over $13 billion. That trajectory says a lot about India’s changing economy. But it also highlights something important—the Flipkart mafia is becoming a real force in Indian tech. All four Groww cofounders came from Flipkart, and they’re not the only ones. Successful tech ecosystems create these talent networks that spawn the next generation of companies.
What’s Next
So where does Groww go from here? The company’s planning to use IPO proceeds for cloud infrastructure and potential acquisitions, which suggests they’re preparing for even more growth. But the competitive landscape is getting fierce. They’re up against established players and other well-funded startups all chasing India’s massive retail investing boom. The question is whether this IPO success gives them enough fuel to pull ahead permanently. One thing’s for sure—when your CEO becomes a billionaire overnight, it certainly doesn’t hurt your recruitment efforts or market credibility.
