Who is going to buy all the shares that venture capital & private equity investors eventually need to sell? For years, the Indian startup narrative was dominated by capital deployment. Investors competed to discover the next unicorn, founders competed for larger funding rounds, and valuations became the shorthand for success. But the cycle has changed. The next phase is likely to be defined not by the availability of capital, but by the availability of liquidity. This is the

Udaan has raised $2–2.5B over its lifetime — more than its current private valuation of roughly $0.8–1.3B, down from a $3.2B peak. Founders hold just 12.43% of the cap table. FY25 losses (₹1,055 cr) still exceed the latest equity round, revenue fell 20%, and an offshore bond default triggered insolvency proceedings in Singapore. The IPO push looks less like a growth story and more like investors engineering a documented exit at a marked-down price.

NSE Settlement and the Arithmetic of Absurdity The proposed settlement between the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is being presented as closure. In formal terms, it fits within a consent-based enforcement architecture. In economic terms, however, it raises a sharper question: Has a multi-year structural distortion of market fairness been reduced to a financially efficient exit? A tighter reading—through the lenses

Between Narrative and Numbers Razorpay has, over the past decade, positioned itself as one of India’s most successful fintech platforms—riding the wave of digital payments, SME enablement, and API-led financial infrastructure. With investors including marquee global funds and a last reported valuation in the ~$7–8 billion range (2021–22), expectations around its eventual IPO valuation have steadily crept into the $10–15 billion territory in market conversations. At face value