Groww founders’ holding worth $2.5 bn; Peak XV, Y Combinator, Ribbit score big
Groww, India’s largest investment platform by users, saw its share price surge by as much as 34% before closing at Rs 128.9 on its public market debut on Wednesday. At the closing price, a 29% premium to IPO price of Rs 100 per share, the company has a market capitalisation of Rs 79,547 crore ($9 billion).
This will unlock significant wealth for its early investors and founders. Groww’s four founders - Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal and Neeraj Singh - will collectively hold about 27.5% after the IPO. Their shares will be worth about $2.5 billion.
In the preliminary draft, each founder was planning to sell just 1 million shares each in the offer for sale (OFS), a tiny fraction of their holdings. But in the updated prospectus, the founders decided to skip the OFS. Groww has listed as a promoter-run company with the founders maintaining significant ownership.
The four founders collectively received a one-time incentive of Rs 614 crore in FY25 as a part of the long-term incentive plan by Groww’s board after flipping base from the US to India. They have also sold a part of their holdings through secondary share sales worth Rs 104 crore in the months before filing for the IPO.
Groww also counts Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella as an investor. Nadella invested in the company in 2022. At that time, Groww was valued at $3 billion, and with the IPO, it has nearly tripled.
Nadella holds about 3.5 million shares in Groww, which will be worth Rs 45 crore or $5 million. For context, Nadella has a salary package of $95 million at Microsoft.
