By Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -Shares of Billionbrains Garage Ventures, parent of online brokerage Groww, jumped 24% in their market debut on Wednesday, valuing the firm at 761 billion rupees ($8.6 billion) as investors bet on India’s retail investing boom after a run of weak listings.
The stock opened at 112 rupees on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and climbed to 124 rupees, well above its 100-rupee issue price in a $754 million IPO.
The debut valued Groww above listed peers Motilal Oswal Financial Services and Angel One, and offered relief to IPO investors after subdued market entries from Lenskart Solutions, Orkla India, and Studds Accessories earlier this month.
“Groww represents a strong long-term structural story and can act as a proxy for India’s expanding capital market participation,” said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice-president of research at Mehta Equities.
India’s NSE has been adding about 10 million registered investors every six to seven months since March 2021, taking its total investor base to 120 million as of September, the country’s largest bourse said.
Groww’s listing comes amid a flurry of IPOs in India, where over 300 companies have raised $16.55 billion so far in 2025, according to LSEG data. The country’s primary market is on track to surpass last year’s record $20.5 billion, led by big-ticket listings from Tata Capital, LG Electronics India, and HDB Financial Services.
Founded in 2016, Groww is among the country’s largest online investment platforms, offering trading in equities, mutual funds, and fixed-income products.
Still, some analysts warned that much of the near-term optimism may already be priced in. “The current valuations seem to fully capture the short-term growth prospects, and investors should watch out for a couple of quarterly earnings before making further investment decisions,” said Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at WealthMills Securities.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
