OfBusiness is seeking $2 billion in India’s biggest tech IPO since Paytm
A husband-and-wife founding team is in discussions with banks about raising as much as $2 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) for one of their startups, aiming for India’s biggest tech debut since
fintech giant Paytm.
OfBusiness, a start-up founded by Ruchi Kalra and Asish Mohapatra to help Indian enterprises buy bulk raw materials, could file initial listing documents around October, people familiar with the matter said. The start-up is in talks now to raise about $400 million of pre-IPO financing in coming months, one of them said. It’s in discussions with potential IPO arrangers, including Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley and India’s Kotak, Avendus and ICICI Securities.
At $2 billion, OfBusiness is aiming to pull off India’s largest tech IPO after Paytm’s. That’s despite the fintech start-up’s disastrous early performance, and waning global appetite for riskier assets as the war in Ukraine and rising inflation stoke macroeconomic uncertainty.
OfBusiness hopes to buck the trend after quadrupling revenue in each of the past few years, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. It’s hoping for 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 financial year ending March 2023 of $6 billion and it’s already profitable, one person said.
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