06-08-2025
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.
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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.
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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.
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