Mumbai, Feb 7, 2026, 13:26 IST
- Aye Finance secured Rs 454.5 crore from 19 anchor investors just before its Feb 9 IPO.
- The lender is marketing the deal at roughly Rs 3,200 crore—lower than where its previous private round landed.
- Bad loans surged, slicing profit down 40% for the six months to September.
Aye Finance secured Rs 454.5 crore from 19 anchor investors before its IPO, selling shares at the top end of the Rs 122–129 band. The biggest allocations went to Nippon Life India and Goldman Sachs funds, each picking up roughly Rs 74 crore, according to Moneycontrol.
The Gurugram-based lender, which counts Alphabet’s CapitalG among its backers, is heading for a public listing at a Rs 3,200 crore ($352 million) valuation—just below what it fetched in its 2025 Series G round—having cut the size of its offering, management told Mint. Investors are watching the deal closely, using it as a read on appetite for non-bank lenders, a sector where many players have been on the sidelines amid market turbulence and higher credit stress.
According to VCCircle, the reduced valuation is hitting some private equity and venture capital investors with softer returns. “The markets have been choppy, particularly for the financial segment,” managing director Sanjay Sharma said, as the company kept moving on its IPO approval, which is set to run out in April.
Book-building for the IPO starts Feb. 9, wraps up Feb. 11. The offer splits between a Rs 710 crore fresh issue and a Rs 300 crore offer-for-sale. In an offer-for-sale, it’s the current shareholders offloading shares—no new shares hit the market.
Exits are shifting, too. Mint said CapitalG lowered its proposed sale to Rs 82.5 crore. LGT Capital and Alpha Wave are each selling Rs 30 crore stakes after trimming earlier plans; A91 Partners has exited the sale process, but MAJ Invest is now set to offload more than it initially intended.
Aye Finance posted a 40% drop in profit, landing at Rs 64.3 crore for the six months through September, though operating revenue jumped 21.8% to hit Rs 843.5 crore, according to its red herring prospectus data cited by Inc42. Gross non-performing assets ticked up to 4.85%, from 3.32% a year ago, Inc42 reported.
Sharma described the move as choosing a “very reasonable valuation,” noting, “our pricing is lower than our last private round.” He argued this gives public investors a cleaner way in. Sovan Satyaprakash pointed out that “credit costs and write-offs show up quickly” since the bulk of the company’s loans typically run for about 24 months.
Sharma told ETBFSI the Rs 710 crore primary raise, plus internal accruals, is expected to push the book from the current Rs 6,100 crores up to nearly Rs 15,000 crores. Satyaprakash broke down the funding mix: banks provide around 30%, development finance institutions contribute roughly 20%, and the remainder comes through other lenders and bonds.
IPO Central’s peer comparison lines up Aye beside SBFC Finance and Five-Star Business Finance, the two listed small-business lenders, and lays out the numbers: Aye’s assets under management for FY25 clock in at Rs 5,533.9 crore, some way behind SBFC at Rs 8,747.4 crore and Five-Star’s Rs 11,877 crore. The analysis puts Aye’s gross bad-loan ratio above both rivals, but notes the company’s provision coverage ratio stands out at 67.56%—meaning a bigger share of its stressed loans is already provided for.
Still, the anchor book leaves one thing unresolved: will public investors actually get behind a microlender showing signs of mounting stress, especially with the valuation coming in under its previous private round? A number of non-bank finance companies have put IPOs on hold. If bad loans spike again, credit costs could climb and earnings would take a hit right as the firm lists.
Aye Finance’s IPO kicks off Monday, while the shares are slated to list Feb. 16. Bankers and investors are keeping close tabs: will the trimmed offer price unlock the queue for other non-bank listings, or just reinforce that public money isn’t budging on valuation?
