A buoyant initial public offering (IPO) market has prompted investors to invest in so-called pre-IPO financing rounds as a means to placing sizeable bets on companies that are about to go public.
So far this year, companies have raised at least $600 million through pre-IPO funding rounds, according to a Mint analysis. The activity has been led by large deals such as the $383 million pre-IPO funding round by a consortium of investors led by Warburg Pincus in ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd and IIFL Special Opportunities Fund’s $60 million bet on Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Co. Ltd.