Won’t invest in over-valued IPOs: Zerodha’s Kamath

/1 min read

ADVERTISEMENT

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.
Won’t invest in over-valued IPOs: Zerodha’s Kamath

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.

fortune magazine cover
Fortune India Latest Edition is Out Now!
The Year Of EV Launches

September 2025

2025 is shaping up to be the year of electric car sales. In a first, India’s electric vehicles (EV) industry crossed the sales milestone of 100,000 units in FY25, fuelled by a slew of launches by major players, including Tata Motors, M&M, Ashok Leyland, JSW MG Motor, Hyundai, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. The issue also looks at the challenges ahead for Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran in his third term, and India’s possible responses to U.S. president Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on Indian goods. Read these compelling stories in the latest issue of Fortune India.

Read 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.”

Fortune India is now on WhatsApp! Get the latest updates from the world of business and economy delivered straight to your phone. Subscribe now.