This Indian Startup By Husband-Wife Duo Can Launch India’s Biggest Tech IPO Since Paytm: Rs 15,000 Crore?
A husband-and-wife founding duo is talking with banks about raising approximately $2 billion in an IPO for one of their startups, aiming for India’s biggest tech debut after fintech’s startup Paytm.
The startup Ofbusiness was created to help Indian enterprises buy bulk raw materials. The company was founded by Ruchi Kalra and Asish Mohapatra. The startup could file initial listing documents around October, stated people knowledgeable about the matter. The startup is aiming to raise about $400 million of pre-IPO financing in coming months, one of the people informed. Discussions are underway with potential IPO arrangers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, India’s Kotak, Avendus and ICICI Securities.
At the valuation of $2 billion, OfBusiness’s goal to pull off India’s largest tech IPO after Paytm’s. The aim has remained this high despite fintech startup’s catastrophic early performance, and a seemingly global risk aversion towards assets as the war in Ukraine, rising inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty.
OfBusiness is hoping to defy the trend after quadrupling its revenue in each of the past few years, the people stated, they have asked to remain anonymous as these are private matters. The startup is hoping to receive a higher valuation than the $5 billion it obtained during its most recent funding round in late 2021, the people said. OfBusiness is projecting a revenue run rate by the end of the financial year March 2023 of $6 billion and the company is already making a profit, one person stated.
“The companies are both ready for public markets and at the right, opportune time, over the six months to two-year period, you will see both companies go public,” Kalra said in an interview on Monday.
India’s first ‘Unicorn Couple’ is aiming for First Startup IPO Within a Year
In 2022, Kalra, 38, and Mohapatra, 41, became the country’s first husband-and-wife team to build their respective startups into enterprises with more than $1 billion valuation, also called unicorns.
They co-founded OfBusiness, formally known as OFB Tech Pvt., and became operational in 2016. The couple later got financial backing from Tiger Global and SoftBank Group Corp. They also helped in creating Oxyzo Financial Services, which is a company that gives digital credit and turned unicorn in its maiden funding of $200 million last month.
Mohapatra is the CEO of OfBusiness and Kalra is CEO of Oxyzo. OfBusiness helps companies, particularly in the manufacturing and infrastructure segments, purchase metals, chemicals, agricultural commodities and building materials, providing them with better pricing and more efficient deliveries. It also helps these firms find new growth opportunities.
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