Elevation Capital lines up 9 portfolio companies for a public listing over 12-24 month horizon
:
Elevation Capital plans to take at least nine portfolio companies public over the next 12–24 months, as it gears up to monetize its portfolio amid improving public market conditions for tech and consumer startups in India, a top executive told Mint.
The venture firm's IPO pipeline includes Aye Finance, Urban Company, Acko, Wakefit, Meesho, The Souled Store, Spinny, Mintifi, and Mosaic Wellness.
Elevation may not exit all of them immediately, it plans to retain stakes in some companies post-IPO.
Draft filings set the pace
Startups like Urban Company, Wakefit, and Aye Finance have already filed their draft papers and may go public by the end of this financial year. Others are expected to follow suit in the next two years, said Chirag Chadha, partner at the firm, in an interview.
Also read: Wakefit gave legacy mattress players a back pain. But can it stay a disruptor?
He added that most of these companies have surpassed ₹1,000 crore in scale and are already profitable or have a clear path to profitability. Elevation's past IPO exits include MMT, IL&FS Investsmart, Justdial, Paytm, FirstCry, Ixigo, Swiggy, Senco Gold, Tracxn, and Speciality Restaurants.
Chadha emphasized that Elevation primarily backs founder-led businesses with IPO ambitions.
'We don't aim for meaningful outcomes through mergers & acquisitions (M&As) in India as of today, while making fresh investments," he said.
'We have not seen that many cases of $500 million M&A transactions in India as we are still in early days, so this is not a scalable strategy for our companies. As a result, IPOs become the primary exit route for us with a small percentage of secondary exits."
The VC firm invests across stages, with cheque sizes ranging from $2 million to $30 million. Over 50% of its fund corpus is reserved for follow-on investments.
'When we invest at a very small scale, we earmark more capital for those companies down the line and keep investing in their successive rounds," Chadha said.
Also read: Stormy Street wrecks IPO plans, but startup investors have other plans
Early and late bets
Elevation made early bets in companies such as Chaayos, Snabbit, Comet, BlissClub, and Yoga Bar (sold to ITC), along with mid- to late-stage firms like Country Delight and Wakefit. The firm has also invested in marquee startups like Swiggy, Meesho, Paytm, and Unacademy.
Its eighth fund, raised in 2022, had a corpus of $670 million. Each fund typically makes 35-40 investments over a 3–4-year deployment period. While Chadha did not disclose capital deployed from the current fund, he said conversations for the ninth fund may begin in the coming year.
Pressure to deliver
With stock markets rebounding and pressure to return capital to limited partners (LPs), several venture and private equity firms are lining up IPOs, secondary stake sales, and continuation vehicles as part of their exit strategies.
'Most funds in India take longer than 10 years to fully materialize into DPI. In that journey, the first four funds have been almost fully realized and have had a healthy performance," Chadha said, without disclosing specific returns.
The IPO market, especially for profitable or near-profitable consumer and fintech companies, has improved in 2025, setting the stage for Elevation and its peers to pursue meaningful exits.
Also read: Why startups will continue to be plagued by moonlighting
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
5 days ago
- Mint
The New Workplace Equation: Well-being, Inclusion, and Thriving Environment
In India, the workplace often extends beyond a professional setting. It is where many individuals spend a significant portion of their lives. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the average employed Indian works 46.7 hours per week, with over 51% clocking 49 or more hours, far exceeding the global average of 38 hours. As workplaces increasingly become a second home, it is crucial for organizations to foster environments that prioritize not just productivity but also the health and mental well-being of their people. Supporting employees in this way is no longer just a professional obligation, it has become a moral one. Deepa Chadha, CHRO, TATA 1mg, believes that fostering a self-empowered culture for employees is the need of the hour as the way forward for any organization lies in co-creation. Speaking on maintaining a thriving environment at workplaces, Chadha says, 'The post-pandemic workplace made it clear that the old playbook needs a rewrite. Employees are seeking meaning and empowerment beyond flexibility or well-being initiatives. And companies must balance this with performance, agility, and customer expectations.' 'It's not a choice between well-being and business outcomes, but about designing ways of working where both can thrive in harmony,' she adds. This sentiment is in line with the People Matters Survey (2024), which revealed that the employees in India value flexibility, empathetic leadership, and psychological safety as top contributors to well-being. Echoing the similar thought, Abhishek Mehrotra, CHRO, Yubi Group, notes, 'Our focus must shift from a 'time spent' metric to a 'value created' paradigm. The goal is to maximize output and innovation by optimizing conditions for human performance, not just by demanding more hours.' In light of increasing discourse on the 70-hour workweek, Sudeep Sharma, Vice President and Head, HR, Learning and Administration, HCL Healthcare, elaborates on the critical role of well-being. He states, 'It is clear that working 70 hours a week is unsustainable and unrealistic for most; yet, dedicating strategically allocated additional time can yield meaningful enhancements in productivity and performance.' He highlights that the core challenge lies in accurately identifying and deeply understanding priorities, both organizational and personal, and aligning actions accordingly. 'This intentional alignment is essential to cultivating a sustainable work environment that respects diverse generational aspirations while advancing organizational excellence,' he adds. Creating a sustainable work environment doesn't just enhance the overall workplace experience, it directly contributes to better outcomes for both employees and the organization. According to the Gallup Survey 2024, thriving employees are 59% less likely to look for a new job and are more than twice as likely to adapt well to change. Beyond retention and resilience, the impact extends to business performance as well. Companies with thriving workplace cultures saw up to four times the revenue growth compared to their peers, as highlighted in the McKinsey 2022 Report. In alignment with the report, Mehrotra believes that true organizational success isn't about simply extracting more hours from the teams. It's about fostering sustainable productivity rooted in employee well-being, two interconnected pillars that reinforce a thriving workforce and a high-performing organization. He says, 'As leaders, our responsibility is to champion a work culture that values human capital as its most precious asset. We can move beyond the outdated notion of simply working longer, towards a future where employees are empowered to work smarter, healthier, and with greater purpose, ultimately driving superior results for our organizations.' He tells Livemint that moving beyond the set and redundant frameworks means asking one simple question every day: 'Who might be feeling unseen and what can we do about it?' Adding further to the narrative, Amit Prakash, CHRO, Marico Limited, says, 'Shaping a thriving environment at the workplace, where human connections and business outcomes go hand-in-hand has become fundamental in today's changing professional landscape. In the post-pandemic era, the contours of work are being redrawn with flexibility, work-life balance, and well-being emerging as key themes.' Across the industry, it is increasingly clear that employees want more than policies; they want purpose, autonomy, and a culture that value outcomes over hours,' he further adds. Creating a holistic thriving environment for employees also accounts for the need for systemically enabling diversity and inclusion at the workplace. While organizations have policies in place to encourage gender ratio at the workplace, women and LGBTQIA+ participation in the workforce still remains abysmally low. According to the findings of a study conducted by AIM Research in partnership with Chubb, women's representation in India's tech contractual workforce reached 32% in Feb 2025 (up from 29% in 2024); but their share in senior leadership remains low, growing only from 11.4% to 13.6%. Speaking on this issue, Chadha adds, 'When employees are part of shaping change - from opening Tata 1mg's first all-women retail store to our digital upskilling pilots - inclusion becomes personal. People feel seen, valued and proud when they're part of 'firsts'.' She is of the view that listening fuels relevance: Inclusion looks different across roles and life stages. And inclusion becomes real when it responds to lived realities. 'We are rooted in a simple belief: Everyone should feel empowered to claim their space. Just as we gravitate toward our favorite seat in a classroom or a familiar desk at work, our goal is to create an environment where every individual feels safe, seen, and supported to bring their authentic self to work,' she adds. While there are growing talks about women's participation in the workplace, LGBTQIA+ still struggle with feeling inclusive of the bigger picture of the organization. According to Deloitte India (2023), 70% of LGBTQ+ workers in India experienced non-inclusive behaviors at work—substantially higher than the global average of 42%. Speaking on the inclusion across all genders, Sharma opines that the diversity extends far beyond gender distinctions to encompass varied regions, distinct geographies, a broad spectrum of professional roles, and dynamic intergenerational collaboration. 'Authentic inclusion requires embracing this multifaceted diversity, thereby cultivating organizations that are not only resilient but also fertile grounds for innovation and excellence,' he says. Elaborating on HCL Healthcare's business, he adds, 'Our footprint across 40 diverse Indian cities requires us to deftly navigate complex regional geographies and cultural nuances, all while upholding unwavering standards of clinical excellence. Our human capital is marked by rich ethnic and linguistic diversity, which calls for a corporate ethos rooted in inclusivity and cultural fluency. Inclusion and diversity go far beyond annual celebrations like Women's Day or Pride Month. It's about continuously envisioning and reimagining a workplace that is soft, nurturing, and warm; a space where individuals feel safe, accepted, valued, and appreciated in both simple gestures and meaningful actions. It's about celebrating not just important festivals, but the diverse lives and experiences of people every day. To help organizations build such environments, Mint, in partnership with Deloitte, has launched Mint India's Iconic Workplaces, a workplace excellence certification that serves as a guiding light for organizations committed to creating thriving, inclusive cultures and improving the overall quality of life for their employees.
Mint
5 days ago
- Mint
Elevation Capital lines up 9 portfolio companies for a public listing over 12-24 month horizon
MUMBAI : Elevation Capital plans to take at least nine portfolio companies public over the next 12–24 months, as it gears up to monetize its portfolio amid improving public market conditions for tech and consumer startups in India, a top executive told Mint. The venture firm's IPO pipeline includes Aye Finance, Urban Company, Acko, Wakefit, Meesho, The Souled Store, Spinny, Mintifi, and Mosaic Wellness. Elevation may not exit all of them immediately, it plans to retain stakes in some companies post-IPO. Draft filings set the pace Startups like Urban Company, Wakefit, and Aye Finance have already filed their draft papers and may go public by the end of this financial year. Others are expected to follow suit in the next two years, said Chirag Chadha, partner at the firm, in an interview. Also read: Wakefit gave legacy mattress players a back pain. But can it stay a disruptor? He added that most of these companies have surpassed ₹1,000 crore in scale and are already profitable or have a clear path to profitability. Elevation's past IPO exits include MMT, IL&FS Investsmart, Justdial, Paytm, FirstCry, Ixigo, Swiggy, Senco Gold, Tracxn, and Speciality Restaurants. Chadha emphasized that Elevation primarily backs founder-led businesses with IPO ambitions. 'We don't aim for meaningful outcomes through mergers & acquisitions (M&As) in India as of today, while making fresh investments," he said. 'We have not seen that many cases of $500 million M&A transactions in India as we are still in early days, so this is not a scalable strategy for our companies. As a result, IPOs become the primary exit route for us with a small percentage of secondary exits." The VC firm invests across stages, with cheque sizes ranging from $2 million to $30 million. Over 50% of its fund corpus is reserved for follow-on investments. 'When we invest at a very small scale, we earmark more capital for those companies down the line and keep investing in their successive rounds," Chadha said. Also read: Stormy Street wrecks IPO plans, but startup investors have other plans Early and late bets Elevation made early bets in companies such as Chaayos, Snabbit, Comet, BlissClub, and Yoga Bar (sold to ITC), along with mid- to late-stage firms like Country Delight and Wakefit. The firm has also invested in marquee startups like Swiggy, Meesho, Paytm, and Unacademy. Its eighth fund, raised in 2022, had a corpus of $670 million. Each fund typically makes 35-40 investments over a 3–4-year deployment period. While Chadha did not disclose capital deployed from the current fund, he said conversations for the ninth fund may begin in the coming year. Pressure to deliver With stock markets rebounding and pressure to return capital to limited partners (LPs), several venture and private equity firms are lining up IPOs, secondary stake sales, and continuation vehicles as part of their exit strategies. 'Most funds in India take longer than 10 years to fully materialize into DPI. In that journey, the first four funds have been almost fully realized and have had a healthy performance," Chadha said, without disclosing specific returns. The IPO market, especially for profitable or near-profitable consumer and fintech companies, has improved in 2025, setting the stage for Elevation and its peers to pursue meaningful exits. Also read: Why startups will continue to be plagued by moonlighting
Economic Times
6 days ago
- Economic Times
The Sleep Company raises Rs 480 crore in funding led by ChrysCapital, 360 One Asset
ETtech Priyanka and Harshil Salot, cofounders, The Sleep Company Direct-to-consumer startup The Sleep Company has raised Rs 480 crore in a mix of primary and secondary funding round, with private equity firm ChrysCapital and 360 One Asset investing in the part of the transaction, early backer Fireside Ventures made a partial exit through secondary share sales. Cofounder Harshil Salot told ET that the round was evenly split between primary and secondary components. 'We had Fireside Ventures who was our earliest backer, they have taken a part exit in a secondary and the balance is primary. The predominant use of this fund is on development of our teams and on our retail expansion footprint,' he said. The company plans to add 130-150 stores over the next two years, building on its current network of 160 stores across 47 in 2019 by husband-wife duo Harshil and Priyanka Salot, The Sleep Company sells products such as mattresses, pillows, bedding, cushions, office chairs, recliners, and sofas. It plans to deepen its presence in metro and tier-I cities while expanding in tier-II Salot said around 85% of The Sleep Company's sales now come from its direct-to-consumer website and offline outlets, with the remaining 15% coming from marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart.'We continue to see strong traction not only in the top cities but also the tier I and tier II cities and we want to continue to double down on our omnichannel strategy because we believe that is a very strong part for our business,' he added. The funding comes at a time when key competitors such as Wakefit and Duroflex are preparing for initial public offerings. Wakefit filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) in June to raise Rs 468 crore through a fresh issue, while Duroflex is also looking to go public in the next 18 months, according to Reuters. Sheela Foam, which owns Sleepwell, is currently the only listed player in the space. Harshil Salot said the IPO plans of rivals including Wakefit and Duroflex signal a maturing of the domestic sleep and home furnishing industry. 'It's great for the increases awareness about this category and these products, which will help all of us.'The company said it currently has an annualised revenue run rate (ARR) of Rs 750 crore and has achieved profitability at an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation level in the last to Tracxn, The Sleep Company closed fiscal year 2024 with a revenue of Rs 320 crore on a net loss of Rs 58.7 it does not yet have an international presence, Harshil Salot said global expansion is part of the company's long-term Mumbai-based firm, which employs around 1,500 people, is ramping up hiring across product development and retail teams, with a portion of the new funding earmarked for this expansion.'This investment also represents a compelling opportunity to participate in India's broader premiumisation wave—where consumers are increasingly gravitating towards high-quality, science-led, and design-first products that enhance everyday living,' said Rajiv Batra, director and consumer sector lead, ChrysCapital said in a statement. 'We believe The Sleep Company is poised to become a dominant force not only in sleep solutions but across the wider comfort and wellness landscape.' It last raised Rs 184 crore in December 2023 from Premji Invest and Fireside Ventures. Prior to that, it secured Rs 177 crore in 2022 in a round led by Premji Invest, with Fireside also participating. The company is also evaluating new acquisition targets for acquisitions in the space. Priyanka Salot, cofounder of The Sleep Company, said that when the company launched five-and-a-half years ago, new brands were entering the market every two to three months. However, most of those no longer exist or have been acquired, and she expects the trend of consolidation to continue. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Berlin to Bharuch: The Borosil journey after the China hit in Europe FIIs are exiting while retail investors stay put. Will a costly market make them pay? BlackRock returns, this time with Ambani. Will it be lucky second time? Paid less than plumbers? The real story of freshers' salaries at Infy, TCS. Stock Radar: Down 27% from highs! Hero MotoCorp stock shows signs of momentum after breaking out from 11-week consolidation For those prepared for the long game: 5 mid-cap stocks from different sectors with an upside potential of 14 to 33% in one year Financial services: Time to look at a new set for the next cycle? 5 stocks from the financial services space with upside potential of up to 37% These 8 banking stocks can give more than 29% returns in 1 year, according to analysts
