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What happens when an IPO frenzy sucks out $3.7 billion (₹27,417 crore) in just six months? The answer according to Nikhil Kamath, co-founder, Zerodha and True Beacon, is—collateral damage. Not just for the secondary market but also retail investors. “When an IPO is subscribed 40-50 times, while it might sound like a good thing in the news, a certain amount of money has to get blocked for every single person who has subscribed. That liquidity is going away from a market that is already strapped for liquidity,” says Kamath in an interview to Fortune India.
August 2025
As India continues to be the world’s fastest-growing major economy, Fortune India presents its special issue on the nation’s Top 100 Billionaires. Curated in partnership with Waterfield Advisors, this year’s list reflects a slight decline in the number of dollar billionaires—from 185 to 182—even as the entry threshold for the Top 100 rose to ₹24,283 crore, up from ₹22,739 crore last year. From stalwarts like Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, and the Mistry family, who continue to lead the list, to major gainers such as Sunil Mittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla, the issue goes beyond the numbers to explore the resilience, ambition, and strategic foresight that define India’s wealth creators. Read their compelling stories in the latest issue of Fortune India. On stands now.
It’s not just liquidity that rankles the 34-year-old and India’s youngest billionaire but the fact that retail investors are getting allured by listing gains. Kamath feels that in a majority of IPOs, retail investors will be left holding the can. “IPOs are, typically, a time when all savvy investors are offloading what they bought historically to the retail public of the country.”
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