A total of 38 companies, including SBI Funds Management and Manipal Health Enterprises, filed their initial IPO papers with Sebi in March 2026. This is an indication that the confidence of the companies issuing the issues is increasing, and regulatory deadlines have also contributed to this. This is a big jump compared to 22 applications in March 2025 and 16 applications in March 2024, according to Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) data. Which is an indication that the public issue pipeline has now become even stronger. According to sources related to merchant banking, this growth is expected to continue in future also. Many big companies like the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Reliance Industries’ telecom arm Jio are preparing to submit their draft papers in the coming weeks.
Additionally, sources said Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries’ Indian renewable energy arm, Sweden-based Modern Times Group subsidiary PlaySimple, TPG-backed online lending platform Fibe, and Tiger Global-backed BatterySmart may also submit their DRHP (draft red herring prospectus) soon. Out of 38 companies that submitted their draft papers with Sebi, a total of 9 companies chose the path of ‘confidential filing’. These companies include Zetwerk, SNVA Traveltech, Rediff.com India, Torrent Gas, Synergy Advanced Metals, Garuda Aerospace and Sohan Lal Commodity Management.
124 has received approval from SEBI
According to a report by Axis Capital, a total of 64 companies have submitted their DRHPs with Sebi and are awaiting approval. At the same time, 124 companies have received regulatory approval, but they have not yet issued their shares in the market. From March 2025 till now, 20 other companies have also submitted confidential DRHP. The report further states that a total of 109 mainboard IPOs came in the financial year 2025-26 (till the end of March). Of these, 69 IPOs were listed at a price higher than their issue price, while till March 31, 2026, there were three companies which had not yet made their debut on the stock exchange.
The report also says that the IPO market is expected to gain further momentum in the first quarter of the financial year 2026-27. This will be supported by a strong pipeline, as a large number of companies are either waiting for Sebi approval, or already have valid approval to launch an IPO. So far in 2026, 18 companies have launched IPOs, of which 8 issues hit the market in March alone, even though market conditions were volatile and there were geopolitical tensions.
PhonePe postponed IPO
On the other hand, digital payments company PhonePe has postponed its public market listing process for some time due to the current geopolitical conflicts and market volatility. However, PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam said that the company is fully committed to public listing in India. Market experts say that this rise is a combined effect of increasing confidence of issuers and regulatory issues. Firoz Aziz, Joint CEO of Anand Rathi Wealth, said that the reason for this rise is not just due to deadlines. He said that it is a combined effect of issuers’ confidence and compliance with regulatory rules, due to which files are being submitted before the end of March, but linking it only to deadlines would be a very simplistic answer.
Why are so many filings happening?
Giving a similar nuance, Prateek Lunkar, MD and ECM Head of Axis Capital and Co-Head of Financial Sponsor Group, said that this trend is more based on preparedness rather than complete confidence. He said that considering the time taken for regulatory approvals and the difficulties in estimating the right market timing, companies are already submitting files so that whenever a good opportunity comes in the market, they are ready for it. Regulatory approvals are valid for up to 12 months. Generally, companies submit files only at the end of the financial year to keep their approval timelines open. But, Aziz further said that this time the scale of submission of files is much bigger.
new companies in line
In the last two days of March alone, more than a dozen companies have submitted their DRHP. The most important thing is that the quality of the companies joining the IPO queue also points towards an improving market environment. According to sources, new-age insurance distribution platform Turtlemint is moving ahead with its IPO plans, and has received very good feedback from investors in the last few weeks. Institutional investors have started their preparations, and the company is looking to launch its IPO at the next good opportunity available in the market. Similarly, Kerala-based company Learnfluence Education (which operates under the brand ‘Lakshya’) is also going to submit its updated offer document with SEBI soon.
two categories of companies
Experts say that in the current environment, the companies which are moving ahead with their IPO plans can be broadly divided into two categories: The first category includes those companies which have strong support from institutional investors and whose demand is clearly visible in the market. The second category includes those companies which need immediate capital to meet their needs. Rest of the companies can probably wait for better pricing and market stability. This represents a major shift from a liquidity-based cycle to a fundamentals-based market.