India Invest Report – According to an analysis, the simultaneous increase in demat accounts and listing of companies on the stock market may be good for promoters, but not so much for retail investors. The growth in demat accounts and the growth of IPO issues coincide with each other in India, and this indicates growth in the Indian retail investor According to the How India Invest Report 2025 by Invest, “Due to the post-pandemic boom in IPOs, demat accounts have grown almost five times in the last five years. ” “This is only expected to increase and may even encourage 1,000 companies to list over the next two financial years,” the authors wrote.

According to the report, average retail applications increased from 400 in FY2020 to over 200,000 in FY24. Moreover, the average oversubscription from retail investors was 30 times in FY2024, compared to 7 times in FY2023 and just 4 times in fiscal year 2022. ” While the data establishes the enthusiasm of retail investors, data on IPO structure shows that most of the money went to promoters of companies listed in the market.

About 63% of the issue size (₹1. 5 lakh crore) was offered for sale between January and November 2025, based on calculations using data from the Prime Database. This share was 60% in calendar year 2024 and 58% a year ago.

An IPO may involve a new issue where new money flows into the company and is used for a variety of purposes ranging from financing the company’s new capital expenditure or paying off its debt, or a sale offering where the company’s owners and early investors take it home. The latter’s larger stake in the IPO suggests that there is effectively a transfer of capital from the active retail investor to the value-seeking promoter. Industry experts believe that first, there is a need to increase the breadth and depth of the market.

This (increase in use of proceeds for capex) will come when you allow more people into the market,” said Sid Swaminathan, MD and CEO, GeoBlackRock Asset Management Company.