India’s most anticipated IPO pipeline is advancing unevenly. The two largest listings expected this year — Jio Platforms and PhonePe — are at opposite ends of the regulatory readiness spectrum: PhonePe has cleared SEBI and filed its Updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus; Jio has not yet appointed bankers or filed a DRHP, held up by the government’s delay in formally gazetting listing rule changes that SEBI approved six months ago. Between these two extremes, a queue of new-age technology companies including Zepto, Flipkart, OYO, and Fractal Analytics are in varying stages of preparation for listings that would collectively represent a fundamental test of how public markets price digital businesses in 2026.
Jio Platforms: The Biggest IPO in Indian History, Stalled on a Gazette Notification
The Securities and Exchange Board of India approved amendments to its regulations in September 2025, allowing companies with a post-issue market capitalisation exceeding ₹5 lakh crore to dilute as little as 2.5 per cent in an IPO rather than the current minimum of 5 per cent. The rule change is a potential catalyst for mega listings such as Jio and the National Stock Exchange, but has not yet received final government approval. The next step — which can typically take several months depending on government deliberations — is for the Finance Ministry to formally incorporate the changes and announce them in the Official Gazette. United Nations
Reliance is waiting for the government to formalise the changes backed by the regulator to formally appoint bankers and file a Draft IPO Prospectus. The company was aiming to file the draft prospectus before April 2026, depending on the government notification, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear what the holdup is, and there is no indication that the delay is specifically targeting the Jio IPO. United Nations
The significance of the rule change for Jio’s transaction structure is substantial. Under the new framework, if Jio Platforms achieves a valuation of ₹12 lakh crore, the company could raise approximately ₹30,000 crore through a 2.5 per cent stake sale — a reduction from the ₹60,000 crore-plus that would have been required under previous minimum float regulations. The reduced issue size lowers the demand required from the market to fully subscribe the offering, materially improving its probability of success. India Infoline
Investment bankers have estimated Jio Platforms’ potential valuation at approximately $170 billion. Mukesh Ambani announced at Reliance Industries’ Annual General Meeting in August 2025 that Jio’s IPO was targeted for the first half of 2026. ThePrint That H1 2026 target is now uncertain. Jio Head of Strategy Anshuman Thakur, in an earnings call, stated: “The Jio IPO — internally we are working on it. Of course we are awaiting the new notification to come from the government to see what the final details are.” World Bank No DRHP has been filed as of March 15, 2026.
PhonePe: SEBI-Cleared, Updated DRHP Filed, April Listing Window in View
PhonePe filed its pre-filed DRHP via the confidential route on October 3, 2025. SEBI approved the filing on January 20, 2026. The company filed its Updated Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI on January 21, 2026. The IPO is structured as a pure Offer for Sale of up to 50,660,446 equity shares, with no fresh issue component — meaning no capital flows into the company itself. WM Digital Commerce Holdings Pte. Ltd. (Walmart’s entity) is the Promoter Selling Shareholder; Tiger Global PIP 9-1 Ltd. and Microsoft Global Finance Unlimited Company are the Investor Selling Shareholders. Book running lead managers include Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, J.P. Morgan India, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India, Jefferies India, Morgan Stanley India, and JM Financial. Business Today
The IPO is expected around April 2026. The proposed issue size is approximately ₹12,000 crore ($1.3-1.5 billion), targeting a valuation of $14.5 billion to $15 billion — a premium over the $12 billion valuation established in PhonePe’s December 2023 private funding round. International Monetary Fund
PhonePe commands approximately 45 per cent market share by transaction volume on the UPI network as of December 2025. The platform processed 980 crore transactions in December 2025 out of total UPI volumes of 2,160 crore for the month. Worldbank
The financial picture requires careful reading. PhonePe reported operating revenue of approximately ₹7,115 crore in FY25, up roughly 40 per cent from ₹5,064 crore in FY24. The company reported a narrowed consolidated net loss of approximately ₹1,727 crore in FY25, compared to ₹1,996 crore in FY24. Adjusted EBITDA — excluding ESOP costs — reached ₹1,477 crore, indicating operating profitability at the EBITDA level even while reported losses persist at the net level due primarily to ESOP expense and payment processing charges. Business Today
The gap between adjusted EBITDA profitability and net loss is the central financial question for prospective investors. The adjusted figure excludes stock compensation expenses that represent real economic cost to shareholders; the net loss figure includes them. Both numbers are accurately reported in the UDRHP, and the difference between them is material.
The Valuation Framework: How to Read These Numbers
The research brief for this article asked whether tech IPO valuations are “fact or hype.” It is the right question, but it does not have a binary answer. The more precise question is: what assumptions does a given valuation require, and are those assumptions visible and reasonable?
For PhonePe, the implied valuation of $15 billion at the time of listing — against FY25 revenue of ₹7,115 crore (approximately $830 million) — represents a price-to-sales multiple of approximately 18x trailing revenue. For a company with 40 per cent revenue growth, dominant UPI market position, and an expanding financial services portfolio, this multiple reflects a growth premium. Whether it is justified depends on how quickly the company converts operating profitability into net profitability, and whether its financial services verticals — insurance, lending, mutual funds — scale as projected.
For Jio Platforms, the $170 billion investment banker estimate implies a price-to-earnings multiple that is currently impossible to calculate precisely from public data, given that the company has not filed offer documents. Analysts have derived estimates from Reliance Industries’ own segmental reporting and comparable listed telecom and digital services companies. These estimates are useful references but are not valuations in the SEBI-regulated sense.
OYO has reportedly filed a confidential DRHP with SEBI. Zepto has also filed confidential IPO papers. Flipkart has received NCLT approval for its Singapore-to-India domicile shift, which is a prerequisite for an India listing. Fractal Analytics has been listed in multiple secondary sources as targeting an H1 2026 IPO at a valuation in the $3-4 billion range, though a confirmed SEBI filing has not been publicly announced.
The Structural Shift That Changes the Calculus
The Paytm IPO of November 2021 listed at ₹2,150 per share, fell 27 per cent on listing day, and continued declining for most of the following 18 months — a cautionary data point that has informed both SEBI’s regulatory posture and investor behaviour ever since. The primary market in 2025 saw over 100 mainboard IPOs with broadly positive listing outcomes, reflecting improved issuer discipline on valuation and investor selectivity that filters out the most aggressively priced offerings at the subscription stage. World Bank
The 2026 IPO pipeline differs from 2021 in one important structural respect: most companies in the current queue have operating histories long enough to show revenue trajectories, cost structures, and unit economics data across multiple market cycles. The SEBI DRHP framework requires disclosure of this data in standardised form, meaning the information needed to evaluate valuation reasonableness is available to investors who read offer documents.
The question of “sach ya hype” in any individual listing is therefore ultimately an investor’s analytical judgment — applied to disclosed financials, comparable company multiples, growth assumptions, and execution risk — rather than a categorical verdict about the entire class of new-age technology listings. What 2026’s pipeline does offer is the opportunity for that analysis to be better informed than it was in 2021: more data, more regulatory discipline, and the recent example of what happens to companies that list at valuations that require perpetual optimism to justify.
Note to readers: This article presents factual information on IPO filings, regulatory status, and company financial data for informational and journalistic purposes only. Valuation estimates cited are from disclosed funding rounds, analyst projections, or company-stated expectations — they are not SEBI-approved offer prices, nor do they constitute investment recommendations. All IPO investments are subject to market risk. Readers must read offer documents and consult a SEBI-registered advisor before making investment decisions.