Can niche platforms deliver big returns in the IPO market?

Mumbai: India's buzzing IPO market has encouraged industries with hitherto limited capital-market history, such as niche B2B online platforms, fitness equipment makers and digital financiers, to tap the country's biggest pool of public investors in 2026.

The upcoming public issue pipeline includes Blackstone-backed Horizon Industrial Parks, a Grade-A warehousing and logistics platform, and Jerai Fitness, one of the few domestic manufacturers of commercial gym equipment. Digital-first platforms such as PhonePe, insurance marketplace Turtlemint and education finance firm Credila are also expected to tap the market.

"Investor appetite today is clearly skewed toward companies that are differentiated and are category leaders," said Bhavesh Shah, head of investment banking, Equirus.

"What works in the current market are unique, disruptive stories with visible growth, scalability and a clear path to profitability," he said. Merchant banking firm Unistone Capital's senior manager Deep Shah said a new wave of IPO-bound companies was emerging not because they represented entirely new industries, but because they formalised long-standing economic activities that were hitherto either too small or suffered from diffused ownership.

For instance, OYO, now rebranded as Prism, is positioning itself as an Indian-origin multinational. Luxury omnichannel fashion platform Purple Style Labs (Pernia Pop-Up Shop), catering major FoodLink F&B Holdings, cloud-kitchen operator Cure Foods India and stressed-asset specialist ARCIL Asset Reconstruction are also preparing for listings. Gaja Capital is set to become the first alternative asset manager to go public.

This shift follows a year when public markets rewarded companies that broke away from traditional sector moulds. In 2025, category-defining listings such as Lenskart, lowcost edtech player PhysicsWallah, airport food and lounge operator Travel Food Services, and Urban Company drew investor interest.

The cohort also included B2B-focused names like overseas education platform Crizac, construction materials marketplace ArisInfra Solutions and helmet maker Studds Accessories.

“The IPO market is no longer about fitting into a sector. It is about companies that sit at the intersection of platforms, technology and operating assets, which simply didn’t exist at scale a decade ago,” said Raghav Gupta, joint CEO, IIFL Capital.

This hybridisation is not confined to consumer-facing businesses. Innovatiview, which provides automated security and surveillance solutions for examinations, elections and largescale events, and niche industrial players such as Steamhouse India and HD Fire Protect, may also go public in 2026.

“What’s new this cycle is investor comfort with first-oftheir-kind business models from institutional warehousing to election-tech and global Indian consumer platforms evaluated on forward-looking metrics rather than legacy labels,” Gupta said.

As India’s economy matures, capital markets are naturally opening up to unique, hard-toclassify businesses with defensible niches, scalable economics and global aspirations, he said. Unistone’s Shah expects more companies from niche and previously unorganised segments to enter the IPO market, citing the growing readiness of businesses that are institutionalising informal ecosystems.

These include a consumer-facing astrology platform to organised student and migrant housing, precision temperature-sensing and industrial compliance solutions, and early-childhood intervention and therapy services built on scalable, data-driven models.