New Delhi, Sep 28 — India’s primary market shifts beyond episodic IPO cycles toward a deeper capital‑formation ecosystem, with a mainboard offering pipeline of about Rs 3.86 lakh crore, around 3.5 times the Rs 1.10 lakh crore raised through 84 mainboard IPOs so far this year, an industry chamber said on Monday.
The statement from Association of Investment Bankers of India (AIBI) said the pipeline comprises nearly 130 companies that have received SEBI approval and another about 75 firms that have filed Draft Red Herring Prospectuses and are awaiting approval.
The scale of the pipeline points to sustained issuer interest in public markets and provides significant visibility on the potential depth of India’s primary market beyond the capital already raised, the industry body said.
“This depth of supply and stronger participation across QIB, HNI and retail investors, demonstrates that the primary market is becoming a broader and more durable channel for capital formation,” said Mahavir Lunawat, Chairman, AIBI.
Mainboard IPOs have cumulatively mobilised Rs 8.36 lakh crore between 2016 and 2026 YTD, with annual fundraising rising from Rs 26,494 crore in 2016 to Rs 1.76 lakh crore in 2025.
The number of mainboard IPOs has also expanded sharply, from 26 in 2016 to 103 in 2025 and 84 in 2026 YTD.
“The larger structural shift is that India’s capital markets are increasingly being supported by domestic capital and a much wider capital formation architecture. Domestic investor participation has deepened, mutual fund assets have scaled significantly, and the market is increasingly connecting public equity with private capital, debt market,” Lunawat said.
The next phase will be measured by how the industry channels these pools of capital into business expansion, new capacity, infrastructure and long-term productive investment, he forecasted
India’s SME IPO ecosystem has also expanded significantly, with 267 SME IPOs in 2025, the highest annual number in the period covered, followed by 156 issues in 2026 YTD.
Cumulative SME fundraising has reached Rs 39,849 crore over 2016–2026 YTD, while the average SME issue size has increased from Rs 8 crore in 2016 to Rs 45 crore in 2026 YTD.
The number of registered merchant bankers grew from 188 in September 2016 to 250 in September 2026, up 33 per cent, reflecting the expansion in both the number and scale of public-market transactions.
The report forecasted the next phase of India’s primary market to be defined by the quality of issuers, depth of institutional participation, quality of disclosures, wider distribution of capital and the ability of the ecosystem to support companies through successive stages of growth.