Kissht, Ola Electric & More: Why Listed Startups Keep Going Back To The Well

Barely four months after making its stock market debut, digital lending platform Kissht is back in the public markets for more funds. 

Kissht’s parent OnEMI Technology Solutions has received shareholder approval to raise up to ₹832 Cr through a preferential issue of equity shares. The proposed fundraise comes after the company raised around ₹926 Cr through its IPO, including a fresh issue of shares. 

Kissht intends to utilise 75% of the new proceeds to fund its lending arm Si Creva, with the money expected to support its loan-book growth. The rest for general corporate purposes. 

The preferential issue a few months after listing has raised some eyebrows among market observers. But Kissht is not the only one going back to the capital markets after going public.

Over the past couple of years, several tech companies have returned to the equity markets after going public. While most opted for Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs), others have used preferential issues or rights issues. Thus far, new-age listed companies have not gone for a follow-on public offer or FPO.  

Swiggy raised ₹10,000 Cr through a QIP around a year after its listing. Ather Energy raised ₹1,300 Cr through a QIP roughly 14 months after its IPO, while Ola Electric raised ₹780 Cr less than two years after listing, also through a QIP. 

Zaggle, RateGain, Nazara have also tapped institutional investors through QIPs. Travel tech company ixigo raised around $146 Mn through a preferential issue roughly 16 months after its listing. 

For companies that spent years raising successive private rounds, the public market is now emerging as another source of follow-on capital. Analysts also point to the relatively high OFS component in some new-age IPOs, where existing investors got an exit while the businesses themselves raised a relatively low amount of fresh capital. Even where fresh capital was raised, a lot of it went towards debt servicing. 

Now, the short gap between IPO and another equity raise is raising questions around capital requirements, dilution and how companies are deploying money raised from public investors. Is the need for funding that was a prominent hallmark of Indian startups before their IPOs now trickling into their post-listing lives?   

Why Are Startups Raising So Soon After IPOs?

Avinash Gorakshakar, a senior market analyst observing the market over a decade, said, new-age companies are still working on innovation and expanding their user bases, while debt brings servicing requirements and leverage restrictions, which demand free cash flow. 

But the preference for equity does not necessarily point to weak cash flows or an inability to borrow. 

For growth-stage companies, raising debt comes with commitments around interest payments and repayment obligations, while raising funds through a preferential issue or QIP adds to the permanent capital base. This is particularly relevant for companies that are still investing heavily in growth and may take longer to generate cash from those investments. 

Look at the companies raising through QIPs or preferential issues. The likes of Ather, Ola Electric, Swiggy, Nazara, ixigo operate in sectors and segments that may need fresh capital to upgrade manufacturing, the technology base, expand into new product areas and for market share expansion. These are companies that would have typically turned to debt for such capital if their cash flow situation was more predictable and consistent. 

Sandeep Gogia, managing director and co-head investment banking at Equirus Capital said equity can provide companies the capital foundation without obligations, allowing them to fund opportunities where cash generation may take longer or be less predictable. 

For Kissht, this distinction is particularly relevant because fresh equity can strengthen its lending business, while it scales up its other verticals such as its payments vertical. With MDR now coming in, Kissht has all the incentive to leverage growth in the NBFC business to fuel its other segments.  

The timing of the raise can also be influenced by the fintech company’s stock price. 

Kissht is raising ₹832 Cr at ₹314.11 per share, against its IPO price of ₹171. Shares have risen sharply since listing, so now the company can raise capital by issuing fewer shares. “The attraction of equity over debt arises when the startup’s valuation is strong. In this case the stock has almost doubled in the last 4-5 months since listing and a higher share price means it can raise the given amount with less dilution,” Gogia added.  

The valuation logic can apply to most of the other new-age companies when business growth outpaces the assumptions made during the IPO. 

Gorakshakar said companies often pare down their initial IPO fundraising targets to improve the chances of successful listing. If growth accelerates after listing, the money raised during the IPO can get absorbed faster than management had planned, leading to an earlier return to the market. 

So while the casual observation might be that a company going back to the market for new capital did not plan its IPO well, that may not be true. In fact, the opposite may apply.  

The utilisation of IPO proceeds can change based on business plans which are often determined by market conditions, even after a company becomes public. If a company wants to push for faster growth, because of a new policy or a new market opportunity, it needs to be agile enough to reallocate the funds to meet these needs. 

However, analysts also see a second possibility. A company that uses its IPO proceeds faster than expected because of poor financial modelling or cost overruns may have to return to investors out of necessity rather than choice, said Rahul Sharma, head of research at Equity99. 

Getting this distinction right becomes more important for investors and institutions when assessing preferential issues or QIPs that come shortly after the IPO. 

Fresh Equity Brings The Dilution Question

Every fresh issue changes the ownership structure of a company. 

If the additional capital generates enough growth in earnings and business value, the dilution can be justified. But if earnings do not rise in line with increase in the share count, existing investors can see their earnings per share come under pressure. 

“Raising a massive chunk of the company’s market cap too soon can penalise existing EPS (earnings per share) unless the new capital deploys into high return projects immediately,” Equity99’s Sharma said. 

This makes the intended use of funds an important part of the analysis for any investor or outside observer.  

Kissht says most of the ₹832 Cr will go towards its lending business. For a company expanding its loan book, investors will need to track whether the additional capital leads to higher book value and earnings without a comparable deterioration in asset quality or returns. 

Ather, meanwhile, raised ₹1,300 Cr through QIP in July 2026, almost 14 months after its public listing for repayment or prepayment of borrowings, research and development and marketing. 

Swiggy’s ₹10,000 Cr QIP was primarily aimed at expanding its quick commerce businesses and potential acquisitions. 

Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola Electric is looking to raise up to ₹1,500 Cr, three months after the company had already raised ₹780 Cr through a QIP soon after listing. This is expected to accelerate debt repayment and increase the cash runway, especially when the company is investing heavily in manufacturing and battery technology. 

For any investor evaluating new-age tech stocks, per-share growth metrics will become more important to track. 

Investors should track revenue, EBITDA, earnings and free cash flow on a per share basis, along with the incremental return on invested capital compared with the cost of equity. The time taken for the fresh capital to become earnings accretive is another key measure of an investible stock. 

This is a broader test of whether the fresh capital is translating into higher earnings and value per share, rather than simply increasing the company’s absolute revenue or user base. “A company may report rapid absolute growth while existing shareholders experience limited value creation because the share count has increased just as quickly,” Gogia added.

As in an IPO, pricing also matters. 

For QIPs, investors typically assess the issue price against the prevailing market price and recent trading averages. A discount can help attract institutional investors, but a large discount can also increase dilution borne by existing shareholders. 

The profile of incoming investors provides another data point. Long-only mutual funds, pension funds, insurers and sovereign institutions taking large positions can indicate a willingness to hold the stock for several years, But institutional participation by itself does not determine whether a fundraise creates value. 

What’s In It For Institutional Funds? 

Despite the concerns around dilution, institutional demand for new age companies remains strong, Several recent QIPs have been oversubscribed, pointing to continued appetite for companies.

But a proposed QIP does not always make it to the finish line. PB FIntech’s experience earlier this year showed that investors can push back when they believe the proposed use of capital or potential dilution does not justify another equity raise. 

In February 2026, PB Fintech board had said it would consider a QIP to fund inorganic expansion in international markets. The announcement triggered a sell-off in the company’s shares, with analysts questioning the need for fresh capital when PB Fintech was already sitting on more than ₹5,000 Cr of cash and warning about potential dilution. The company subsequently cancelled the proposed QIP.  

Access to public market capital cannot be taken for granted. Investors are looking at what the money will be used for, how much dilution a transaction could create and whether the proposed investment can generate returns above the company’s cost of capital. 

Compare this to another recent QIP bid. Ather’s ₹1,300 Cr QIP attracted bids worth more than ₹10,000 Cr, PB Fintech’s proposed raise faced an immediate negative reaction and had to be shelved.

Part of this demand comes from better visibility into these businesses after listing. Companies that were once private now have to disclose quarterly financials, material impact, operating metrics and management commentary. 

This allows institutional funds to build meaningful positions if they may have missed their desired allocation during the IPO. Naturally, high-growth companies tending towards profitability will gain some organic interest too.   

But QIP discounts, strong share price performance, limited free float and the possibility of future index inclusion can all share an issue attractive to institutional investors. 

“There is huge liquidity available for investors in QIPs. Also if the quality of the franchise is good and growth prospects look strong over the next 2-3 years ahead, then QIP investors are ready to invest,” Sharma said. 

But oversubscription should not be read as a blanket endorsement of a company’s business or trajectory. 

Some QIP order books can be inflated because investors expect to receive only part of what they bid for. Stronger evidence of conviction would be broad participation from long-term investors, disciplined pricing and investors continuing to hold their positions after the issue. 

The bigger change is in how routinely new-age companies are approaching public markets. Their confidence in markets is similar to their confidence in routinely raising VC rounds previously.

They are more than familiar with approaching private investors every few years for a Series C, D or E round. That is a key difference in the mindset of the new-age tech stock promoter class compared to traditional businesses which approached the markets more tentatively.

“This represents a maturing public capital ecosystem. Listing is no longer necessarily viewed as the final fundraising event. It can become the beginning of ongoing access to a larger and more liquid institutional capital pool,” Gogia said. 

All of this makes financial sense if a company has attractive opportunities to deploy the money. Concerns will arise and red flags will be raised when funds remain undeployed, or if promoters and management hesitate in using them for growth, or if companies simply fail with regards to performance and targets. 

At some point investors will call out a company that is simply accumulating capital for a rainy-day reserve. That’s always a risk for companies routinely raising from public markets, especially after a high-profile IPO.  

Markets Watch: New Issues, Fundraise & More

Rentomojo Makes 32% Premium Listing: RentoMojo made its stock market debut this week, with shares listing at ₹534 on the NSE, around 32% above its ₹404 IPO price. The furniture rental startup’s IPO had received a 72.88X subscription, with bids worth ₹64,000 Cr for the ₹1,100 Cr issue. 

Moneyview Halves Fresh Issue: Fintech unicorn Moneyview has significantly cut the fresh issue component of its IPO to ₹750 Cr from ₹1,500 Cr, while reducing the OFS component to 10.04 Cr shares from 13.6 Cr. The revision comes a couple of months after SEBI cleared the company’s IPO. 

Kuku Technologies’ ₹3,500 Cr IPO: Audio OTT startup Kuku Technologies has received SEBI’s approval to proceed with its IPO. The issue could be worth ₹2,500 – ₹3,500 Cr and is expected to comprise both fresh shares and an OFS. The company could be valid at around ₹15,000 Cr through the public issue. 

SEBI Greenlights FIbe’s ₹750 Cr IPO: Lendingtech startup FIbe has received SEBI;s green light for its IPO. The startup’s IPO consists of a fresh issue of ₹ 750 Cr and an OFS for more than 4 Cr shares.

Edited By Nikhil Subramaniam
Creatives: Varshita Srivastava

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