Globally various successful start-ups in the e-commerce, social
media and mobile technology firms have been accessing the IPO
market including international IPO markets for raising capital.
This hasn't been true for India's successful start-ups.
Successful starts ups in India (such as Flipkart and OYO Rooms to
name a few) have been raising capital through the venture capital/
private equity route and have constantly avoided the public
market.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India
("SEBI") conscious of this lack of
interest in start-ups to access the public markets and worried that
it may slow the development of the capital markets in India opened
a platform in October 2013 called the Institutional Trading
Platform or "ITP" exclusively for such start-ups and
removed much of the red tape. However, as many of the protections
for investors were removed, the SEBI ensured that only HNIs and
institutional investors invested in companies listed on the
ITP.
