Mumbai, Dec 30: India’s equity capital markets have undergone a profound transformation between 2020 and 2025, evolving from a largely cyclical fund-raising avenue into a structurally deeper and more resilient platform for capital formation, according to the Primary Pulse 2025 Report by Pantomath Capital. The Report highlights that India’s IPO market has now entered a structurally stronger phase, emerging as the global leader by deal volume, with the country’s capital markets poised to facilitate close to INR 4 lakh crore of capital formation in 2026, underscoring the growing depth, scale, and maturity of India’s primary market ecosystem.

The Report highlights that post-2020, there has been a decisive inflection point for India’s IPO ecosystem. Issuance volumes have risen sharply across both mainboard and SME segments while signalling a shift from opportunistic listings to sustained capital mobilisation and also reflecting broad-based issuer participation. Notably, mainboard IPOs have surpassed 100+ IPOs in 2025, first time since 2007. Interestingly, India leads the IPO charts in terms of numbers of IPO in CY 2025 and India is also among the top three markets in the world for IPO proceeds. Unlike markets driven by a handful of mega listings, India’s IPO activity was characterised by continuity across issue sizes, with strong growth across segments, especially in the ₹100–500 crore and ₹1,000 – 2,000 crore segments.

The Report highlights a continued deepening of investor participation across geographies. While Mumbai remains the primary anchor, accounting for approximately 37% and 38% of retail and HNI applications, respectively, there has been strong traction from key Gujarat centres including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Mehsana. Importantly, non-metro markets such as Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Kendrapara (Odisha) and Hisar (Haryana) have also emerged as meaningful contributors, underscoring the steady democratisation of equity investing across India and the widening participation beyond traditional financial hubs

The Report underscores a clear shift toward productive capital deployment, with over three quarters of IPO proceeds directed toward expansion, capacity creation, debt reduction, and working capital rather than financial structuring. Financial services led fund mobilization, followed by manufacturing, industrials, and consumption-oriented sectors aligned with India’s long term growth themes.

Investor participation also matured as mutual funds strengthened their role as anchor investors, providing both capital and confidence though the participation was quite selective in nature. Foreign portfolio investors also continued to add global credibility through targeted involvement, supporting disciplined price discovery.

Supported by calibrated regulatory reforms in 2025, focused on governance standards, anchor stability, India’s IPO ecosystem is increasingly aligned with long-term economic growth, positioning primary markets as a core financing engine for India Inc.