ShopClues CBO Radhika Aggarwal on the rigors of an IPO

India’s e-commerce sector, which has so far seen money being pumped in via venture capital and private equity, will soon see its second IPO listing.

On Sept 30th last year, e-commerce firm Infibeam received a green signal from SEBI, India’s stock market regulator, to raise around $68.9 million via an initial public offering (IPO). Now, ShopClues says it’ll be ready for IPO in 2017.

“We do plan to go for an initial public offering (IPO). By the end of next year, we will be ready for IPO,” Radhika said this month.

India’s tech startups have largely stayed away from listing on domestic stock exchanges. That’s mainly because SEBI was judging startups on the same parameters as legacy companies. However, in June last year, SEBI announced a fresh set of norms to facilitate easier listing of startups.

“As one of the first few e-commerce companies going public, we have set the expectations for the industry. The expectations will never come down from now. Decisions need to be taken”, Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of ShopClues said.

There has been a lot of speculation about Flipkart’s IPO since 2015. However, even after a change of CEO, Binny doesn’t seem too keen for an IPO for at least a couple of years. The company prefers to stay out of the spotlight as it works to become profitable.

BSE-NSE listed Lloyd Electric’s Director Nipun Singhal said it best. “E-commerce is in the honeymoon period where they say they’ll change the way people do business, and then make money. They have the luxury of time. For us, in the traditional businesses, the moment a fund buys your stock, every quarter they’ll grill you.”