Amagi IPO: A New Test For Public Markets

India’s new-age IPO market is entering a new phase. After 18 new-age companies went public in 2025, the pipeline is set to expand further, with as many as 48 listings expected over the next 18 months.

The emphasis, however, has somewhat shifted from momentum-driven debuts to pricing discipline, profitability visibility and business-model clarity

Among the early tests of this shifting tide is Amagi. The Bengaluru-based media SaaS unicorn’s IPO will open on January 13 and close on January 16, with anchor bidding scheduled for January 12.

What makes the offering notable is not just its timing, but the clear signals of recalibration built into its structure.

The company reduced its fresh issue size by 25% to INR 816 Cr from the earlier proposed INR 1,020 Cr. The offer-for-sale component has also been trimmed by 22% to 2.69 Cr shares.

At the top end of the price band, the IPO values the company at around INR 7,966 Cr ($885 Mn), about 37% lower than its last private post-money valuation of $1.4 Bn.

This is because the last valuation was derived during a period when SaaS and adtech firms were priced on growth and market potential rather than cash flows. Public investors however now, apply lower multiples and place greater weight on profitability, margin stability and revenue predictability.

This might also be why the company has turned profitable ahead of its listing. In H1 FY26, it reported a net profit of INR 6.5 Cr compared to a loss of INR 66 Cr in H1 FY25. Operating revenue also surged 35% YoY to INR 704.8 Cr.

Pertinent to note that in FY25, it had booked a net loss of INR 68.7 Cr on INR 1,162.6 Cr operating revenue.

Amagi is a software company that sits behind a large part of the global shift from traditional television to streaming, especially free, ad-supported streaming.

However, it does not make shows, does not own content, and does not run a consumer-facing app. Its role is to provide the technology that allows media companies to run TV channels on the internet, distribute those channels across streaming platforms, and make money from advertising shown on those channels.

At the most basic level, Amagi replaces the old, hardware-heavy broadcast setup with cloud software.

In the traditional TV world, running a channel meant owning playout servers, control rooms, satellite links, and large technical teams. Amagi moves all of this into the cloud. A broadcaster can create, schedule and run a live TV channel using software alone, without owning any physical broadcast infrastructure.

For these customers, Amagi charges fixed monthly fees per channel, usage-based fees for live events or content hours, and additional fees if Amagi is managing operations on their behalf.

Once content exists, it has to be distributed. Modern streaming distribution is messy because the same content needs to be delivered to dozens of platforms, each with its own technical rules, formats, ad requirements and metadata standards.

Most media companies handle this with a patchwork of tools and manual work. Amagi solves this by acting as a single system that manages scheduling, on-demand delivery, compliance, metadata and platform-specific rules across live, linear and on-demand formats.

This reduces errors, speeds up launches and allows customers to manage large content libraries without adding headcount.

For this, Amagi charges monthly subscription fees and volume-linked charges based on how much content is processed and delivered.

The most important part of Amagi’s business, however, is its ad network for OTT and digital media platforms. This is where most of the long-term upside sits. Free, ad-supported streaming channels make money only if ads are inserted smoothly, sold efficiently and priced well.

Amagi provides the technology that inserts ads into live and on-demand video streams at the server level, meaning the ad is stitched into the video itself before it reaches the viewer. This avoids ad blockers, reduces buffering and works consistently across devices.

On top of this, Amagi also operates a marketplace that connects this ad inventory directly to advertisers, agencies and demand-side platforms. Instead of a content owner negotiating separately with dozens of buyers, the company aggregates demand and runs programmatic and direct ad sales through a single system.

Notably, advertisers are willing to pay high prices because connected TV ads are full-screen, non-skippable and shown in a living-room environment, which commands much higher rates than mobile or desktop video.

The company earns money here via a mix of usage-based fees and revenue share. The more ads it serves, the higher the fill rates, and the better the pricing, the more Amagi earns.

Amagi sits between three groups at the same time: content owners, distributors and advertisers. Content owners come to Amagi because it gives them access to many distribution platforms and a ready ad-sales engine.

Distributors come because Amagi brings them a large and steady supply of channels and content. Advertisers come because Amagi aggregates premium, brand-safe connected TV inventory at scale.

As more participants join on each side, the platform becomes more valuable to the others. This creates a self-reinforcing loop that is difficult for smaller or single-purpose competitors to replicate.

In the long run, this is likely to be the preferred model for new-age OTT platforms that may not have subscription scale. In particular, the micro drama boom could be a potential growth opportunity for Amagi and its competitors.

There are not many adtech companies which have gone public lately. Amagi’s IPO, if successful, will be one of the first real barometers for the sector. InMobi is expected to also list publicly in 2026, and this could truly put India’s adtech segment into the spotlight.

Notably, Amagi is neither a consumer internet brand riding on headline growth nor a loss-heavy tech story leaning on long-term optionality. Sitting outside these sets, Amagi is a new challenge even for those investors backing the new wave of IPOs.

Sourav Choudhary, managing director at Raghunath Capital, noted, “Amagi’s public market debut is less a celebration of India’s adtech promise and more a referendum on whether disciplined SaaS businesses can finally earn investor trust after a bruising cycle for tech IPOs.”

The central question will be whether Amagi can consistently convert its position in the connected TV value chain into durable margins, predictable revenues and sustainable free cash flow.

Despite a storied legacy, India’s SaaS ecosystem has not had a public listed company to study up close. Amagi has the opportunity to set the record straight about the SaaS growth and value potential, but this is also a litmus test for the company.

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