Offer for sale: How startup founders have been raking in the moolah from IPOs

Eyewear retailer Lenskart is set to launch its Rs 7,300-crore initial public offering (IPO) on October 31 at a valuation of Rs 70,000 crore. Calculations based on information in the prospectus suggest the company’s four founders stand to build nearly Rs 1,200 crore through the offer for sale component of the IPO. In an offer for sale, which is essentially a secondary transaction, existing shareholders sell their shares directly to investors. The OFS proceeds go to these shareholders and not to the company. Only the capital raised through a fresh issue of shares goes to the company.

Lenskart’s founders are the latest in a long list of startup founders who have taken the offer for sale (OFS) route over the last few years. The most recent examples include the founders of Ola Electric, Delhivery, Honasa Consumer and Ather Energy.

Others who are set to follow suit include Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, founders of Meesho, who are set to offload 2.3 crore shares when the value commerce platform goes public at the finish of this year.
Edtech company Physics Wallah’s founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari are also set to offload shares worth Rs 720 crore, according to the company’s draft red herring prospectus.

Been there, done that

Conventionally, promoters or founders selling stakes in their companies during an IPO is taken as a negative signal by markets and public investors. Yet, according to experts, a wave of new-age startup founders has taken the OFS route.

In April 2025, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, cofounders of electric scooter company Ather Energy sold shares worth Rs 32 crore toobtainher via the OFS route.

In 2024, ride-hailing company Ola Electric’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal also sold shares with Rs 288 crore. Similarly, in June 2024, online travel booking platform Ixigo’s founders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar sold shares worth Rs 222 crore via the OFS route.

Mamaearth parent Honasa Consumer listed in 2023 and its founders Varun and Ghazal Alagh sold shares worth Rs 106.4 crore. In a conversation with ET in 2023, Varun Alagh stated, “Around 97% of our ownership continues… so it’s not like we’re parting with something considerable. This was an event in which we also chose to generate some liquidity for ourselves.”

Previously, Delhivery cofounders Kapil Bharati, Mohit Tandon and Suraj Saharan had sold stakes worth Rs 51 crore in 2022 during the logistics company’s IPO. Even Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma sold shares worth over Rs 402 crore during his company’s IPO in 2021.

The ones who didn’t sell

Rather than cash in, some founders chose to hold on to their stakes. For instance, omnichannel jewellery retailer BlueStone launched its Rs 1,541 crore IPO this year but founder Gaurav Singh Kushwaha did not sell any part of his holding.

Similarly, the founders of food and grocery platforms Swiggy and Eternal did not sell any shares when their companies went public.