Kannan Sampath (Zoonest)

IPOs were once a genuine route for companies to raise capital for growth and expansion. Today, they’ve largely turned into exit strategies. When founders and early investors are looking to cash out they aim to exit at absurd valuations, leaving little to no upside for new investors. Most IPOs these days are Offer for Sale, not fresh issues. Take examples like Lenskart, Paytm, or OLA. OLA went public at a peak valuation of nearly ₹50,000 crore almost half of Hero Motor despite Hero doing 15–20x higher sales. For perspective, Eicher Motors between 2005–2015 delivered a 100x return. Back in 2006, Eicher had roughly the same sales as OLA does today, but was valued under ₹1,000 crore, giving investors massive upside potential. The same story repeats with Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, and countless others. If OLA were to even deliver a 10x return from its listing price, it would be worth more than all two-wheeler companies in India combined which is practically impossible. Forget 100x there isn’t even room left for 10x growth anymore. And this pattern runs through most newage IPOs from Nykaa to PolicyBazaar and more They’re not listing to grow. They’re listing to exit.