By Manvi Pant
(Reuters) – Urban Company’s shares surged 74% in their trading debut on Wednesday, notching a $3 billion valuation, after one of 2025’s most-heavily subscribed IPOs signalled investor confidence in its dominance of India’s emerging home-services sector.
Among the biggest IPOs so far in 2025 – including HDB Financial, Hexaware Tech and Ather Energy – Urban Company’s offering was the most subscribed at 103.65 times.
It garnered bids worth about $13 billion.
Its listing comes at a time when India’s IPO market – world’s second biggest – has gained momentum after a slow start to 2025. It is expected to notch record fundraisings this year after raising $7.78 billion in 2024, Reuters reported earlier this month.
Moreover, the country’s online on-demand services market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.4% from 2023 to 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Analysts said investor enthusiasm reflects Urban Company’s dominance of India’s largely unorganised home-services sector, where it faces limited competition from smaller regional and offline providers.
“Investor excitement stems from viewing this (Urban Company) as a structural long-term play on digital adoption and a proxy for the rising demand in home services,” said Aishvarya Dadheech, founder of Fident Asset Management.
Urban Company’s stock opened at 57.5% premium on its issue price, surpassing expectations of two analysts who had predicted a 40%-51% upside. It hit day’s high at 179 rupees and ended the session 62% higher at 166.8 rupees.
The listing also tracked upbeat sentiment in broader Indian equities, supported by optimism over U.S.-India trade talks. The blue-chip Nifty 50 has risen 7% so far in 2025 but is still about 4% lower from the record levels notched about a year ago.
It ended about 0.36% higher on the day. [.BO]
($1 = 87.7325 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)
