Groww investors reap bumper returns; Lightspeed’s India rethink

Happy Wednesday! Groww delivered strong gains to early investors after the IPO lock-in expired. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in the letter:

■ Battery blues hit EVs

■ Nazara Q4 earnings

■ Flipkart’s GST setback

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^{Peak XV, YC and Ribbit pocket up to 94x returns from Groww stake sales as IPO lock-in ends}

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Lalit Keshre, CEO, Groww

Early backers of Groww – Peak XV, Ribbit Capital and Y Combinator – have started cashing out after the IPO lock-in expired, logging multi-bagger returns.

Number-wise:

• Sequoia Capital, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India), Micky Malka’s Ribbit Capital, and Y Combinator together sold 29.52 crore shares or 4.7% of Groww, via block deals.
• The deal happened for Rs 180-181 a share.
• The full block, in which more than 60 global and domestic investors participated, is valued at Rs 5,318 crore.

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Bumper returns: The sale adds to already outsized gains from Groww’s debut. The fintech listed last November at Rs 100 a share and has since climbed over 40%. Today, the stock closed down 5.5% at Rs 183.10 on the BSE.

Also Read: Competition doesn’t limit growth in India: Groww’s Lalit Keshre on building a full-stack wealth platform

Current stakes:

• Peak XV Partners has netted another Rs 1,116 crore and holds a stake worth Rs 18,000 crore. The fund had invested Rs 200-250 crore in the company.
• Following Tuesday’s deals, Y Combinator’s stake in Groww is worth Rs 9,911 crore, while Ribbit Capital holds shares worth Rs 1,122 crore in the company.

Also Read: Groww Q4 FY26 results: Operating revenue surges 87%, net profit more than doubles

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^{Lightspeed eyes new India fund; plans smaller corpus of $300-350 million}

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(L-R) Ravi Mhatre and Bejul Somaia, partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners – backer of Oyo, ShareChat, Udaan, Zepto and PhysicsWallah – is slimming down its India cheque book, even as it doubles down on early-stage deeptech and AI.

Devil in the details:

• Lightspeed is targeting $300-350 million for its fifth India-Southeast Asia fund, sharply lower than the $500 million it initially aimed for.
• Its last India-focused vehicle, raised in 2022, was also a $500 million fund.
• The firm’s growth-stage bets in India have struggled with valuations. Its later-stage portfolio includes Razorpay, Zepto, and PhysicsWallah, while it has backed companies such as Udaan, ShareChat, Oyo, and Byju’s across multiple stages.

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Tell me more:

• In February, partners Bejul Somaia and Ravi Mhatre told ET that Lightspeed’s India deployment over the past year has been skewed towards AI-native startups.
• Recent AI bets in India include Sarvam, Emergent, and Compsio.
• While they did not comment on the fund size, they acknowledged that the market has cooled from the peak-exuberance years, and said Lightspeed’s approach will be more measured and tightly aligned to the opportunity ahead.

Also Read: ETtech Interview: Lightspeed’s Ravi Mhatre & Bejul Somaia on the AI bubble, India opportunity & more

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^{Electric two-wheeler makers brace for raw material price hikes, AI infra pressure}

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India’s electric two-wheeler makers are bracing for margin pain and price hikes as raw material costs spike and supply chains wobble amid geopolitical tensions.

Driving the news: Automakers including Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Ather Energy, and Revolt Motors, along with unlisted players such as Euler Motors and Ultraviolette, are flagging a sharp rise in the costs of lithium-ion cells, rare-earth magnets, memory chips, and key metals used in EV manufacturing.

• Prices of battery materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, plus aluminium, copper, steel and plastics, are all heading north.
• Lithium has jumped from about $8/kg to nearly $24 in a short span.
• Lithium-ion cells have become 30-50% costlier, depending on sourcing timelines.

Pressure on the rise: Profitability is already under strain.

• Bajaj Auto estimates commodity inflation could lift costs by around 3.5-4% during the quarter.
• Hero MotoCorp said bill-of-material inflation is running in the high single digits.
• Ather Energy has warned of near-term margin pressure as commodity and electronic component prices stay elevated.

What’s coming: Manufacturers said they’ve absorbed most of the shock so far, but more of it may be passed on to buyers.

• Hero MotoCorp, for instance, said it has already raised prices by around 2% across products, or Rs 700-3500 per vehicle.

Also Read: Two-wheeler EV sales drop in April after March peak; Ola Electric's market share improves

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^{Other Top Stories By Our Reporters}

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Nazara’s Q4 profit jumps 13x: Online gaming platform Nazara Technologies reported Rs 398 crore in Q4FY26 revenue, down 23% year-on-year, but net profit surged more than 13x to Rs 56 crore from Rs 4 crore a year earlier.

Flipkart’s GST setback: A proposed tax tweak that would have exempted Walmart-owned Flipkart's delivery charges from the goods and services tax (GST) has been struck down by the West Bengal Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (WBAAAR).

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^{Global Picks We Are Reading}

■ Hantavirus conspiracy theories are already spreading online (Wired)

■ Why Americans dread AI (FT)

■ OpenAI to save $97 billion through 2030 in latest Microsoft deal (The Information)