Insights from 11 Years of Mainboard IPOs Part 2 - 2025 Review

India’s public markets have quietly become one of the most consequential capital formation machines in the world. From 2015 – 24, 377 companies listed — with combined revenue of ₹16,500 Bn ($218 Bn) and market cap of ₹37,925 Bn ($501 Bn) at listing. By FY25, aggregate market cap had doubled to ₹77,065 Bn. The compounding is real, and it is accelerating.

But volume and market cap growth only convey part of the story. The purpose of this report is to examine what happened inside these businesses after they listed across five dimensions: financial and profitability metrics, private capital history, market and valuation dynamics, sectoral multiple movements, and employee investment.

A few things stand out. 2024 set a decade record with 89 listings. PE/VC-backed issuers raised 2.8x the median pre-IPO capital of the broader cohort and compounded both revenues and EBITDA faster post-listing over the period under observation; and across nearly every sector, valuation multiples compressed from IPO to FY25 — making revenue growth the only durable source of market cap creation.

Four things to watch

Small-cap dominance is structural, not cyclical

The shift toward smaller listings reflects a deepening of capital market access. The median small-cap company has delivered 16% market cap CAGR — a durable outcome for patient investors.

PE/VC-backed companies remain a distinct cohort

Higher pre-IPO capital, faster compounding, better cash conversion — the institutional advantage is empirically clear and likely to persist as more PE/VC-backed businesses approach listing.

Cash conversion needs more attention

The widening gap between OCF/EBITDA at listing and the decade median should be a core benchmark in IPO readiness conversations — not an afterthought.

Buy the revenue growth, not the multiple

Across the decade, revenue growth was the reliable compounder. Multiple expansion was the exception. Founders and investors alike should price accordingly.

Scale at IPO is shrinking. That’s a feature, not a bug

377 companies listed between 2015 and 2024 with combined revenue exceeding ₹16,500 Bn at IPO. Yet median revenue at listing has fallen sharply — from ₹16.8 Bn in 2016 to ₹7.9 Bn in 2024 — as smaller, high-growth businesses gain access to public markets earlier in their journey. 

PE/VC-backed companies tell a different story. 75 such companies listed over the decade, carrying median P/S multiples of 5.5x at IPO — compressing to 3.2x by FY25 as growth stabilized or .

Margins: steady, not spectacular

EBITDA margins broadly held steady across most sectors from IPO to FY25 — a resilient outcome. Financial Services was the standout, with median EBITDA margins expanding from 36% at listing to 48% by FY25. Consumer Discretionary held flat (16% to 15%), Industrials improved (14% to 17%), and Commodities compressed (18% to 13%).

PAT margins showed a similar pattern. The 2024 cohort was notably healthy — margins expanded across Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Healthcare, and IT within just one to two years of listing, suggesting these companies were already near their inflection points at IPO.

Profitable doesn’t mean cash-generative: the hidden gap

The 2024 cohort converted only 46% of EBITDA to OCFdespite robust profitability metrics compared to the decade median of 57%. PE/VC-backed companies fared far better, with a decade median of 74% and a 2024 reading of 84% justifying higher listing multiples.

Sector dispersion was wide: Telecom (95%) and IT (74%) led cash conversion; Financial Services (−21%) lagged structurally, as lending businesses consume cash to build loan books even while reporting strong EBITDA.

Private capital: the pre-IPO capital premium is real, and it persists

The median company listed with just ₹1.3 Bn in pre-IPO private capital. PE/VC-backed companies raised 2.8x that — a ₹3.6 Bn median — and the outcomes justify the difference. Companies raising over ₹5 Bn pre-IPO compounded revenues at 19% CAGR and EBITDA at 22% CAGR to FY25, versus 16% and 13% respectively for companies raising under ₹0.4 Bn.

Employee costs rarely decline

Employee costs as a share of revenue have broadly remained stable, rarely declining over the long term — the 2024 cohort ran at 9.2% at IPO and 9.5% by FY25. IT companies are structurally different at 43 – 44% of revenue; Energy (1.3%), FMCG (4.2%), and Industrials (6.2%) sit at the other extreme. Median per-KMP compensation grew from ₹7.5 – 17 Mn at IPO across cohorts to ₹13 – 26 Mn by FY25. Utilities, Telecom, and Healthcare saw the sharpest increases 

Valuations: compression was the base case

Private markets reward narratives; public markets price them. A company that commanded a high revenue multiple in its last funding round will encounter a market where the median listed peer trades at 3.4x at IPO — and 3.0x few years later. This is not a failure of the market. It is the market doing precisely what it is designed to do: applying liquidity, comparability, and quarterly scrutiny to a valuation that was previously set bilaterally. The data that follows reflects that discipline in action.

377 companies listed between 2015 and 2024 with aggregate market cap of ₹37,925 Bn, reaching ₹77,065 Bn by FY25 — wealth creation at scale. Yet the journey was not linear, and the headline obscures an important dynamic. Median P/S multiples compressed from 3.4x at IPO to 3.0x by FY25, and EV/EBITDA from 18.x to 17.3x. Across nearly every sector, companies were valued more richly at listing than they were by FY25.

The exceptions were instructive: Healthcare (P/S expanded from 5.3x to 6.0x) and Utilities (3.5x to 4.1x) re-rated upward — sectors where long-duration earnings visibility commands a structural premium. Consumer Discretionary (3.5x to 2.5x) and Financial Services (6.1x to 3.1x) saw the sharpest contraction. Small-cap companies delivered a 16% market cap CAGR over the decade compared to 9% for mid-caps and −11% for large-caps — a reminder that scale at listing is not the same as value creation after it.

The reliable compounder, across cohorts and sectors, was revenue growth. Multiple expansion was the exception. Founders and investors pricing a listing on the assumption that public markets will sustain private-market entry multiples are solving for the wrong variable.

The numbers above reflect a market through FY25. Since then, a confluence of geopolitical recalibration and macro uncertainty has weighed on valuations globally — India’s markets have not been immune. But the decade’s underlying logic holds: a market that has doubled aggregate wealth in ten years, absorbed 377 listings, and progressively deepened access for smaller, earlier-stage companies is not fragile, it is maturing. For founders considering the public route, near-term volatility is precisely that — near-term. The structural capacity of India’s capital markets to generate liquidity, reward compounders, and create durable wealth for founders and investors alike remains intact.