The IPO Engineering, Google’s AI Servers, and Adda247 LayOffs

India’s IPO market is booming, but the real story is not that startups are suddenly becoming profitable.

The real story is that many of them are being cleaned up for exit.

After years of selling growth, GMV, users and future potential, Indian startups are now learning a harder truth: public markets do not buy dreams as easily as private markets did. In FY26, India saw 108 mainboard IPOs raise around ₹1.75 lakh crore, but only 37 of them were trading above issue price by year-end. That tells you something important. Listing is easy when the market is hot. Staying respected after listing is harder.

This is why the “Great Clean-Up” has begun.

Founders and investors are preparing companies for IPO by cutting burn, reducing payroll, shutting weak verticals, lowering marketing spends and polishing adjusted EBITDA. It is not always fake. Some of it is necessary discipline. But some of it is also profitability engineering.

Take Adda247. It reportedly laid off over 200 employees, around 20% of its workforce, while preparing for a market debut. The cuts hit product, content and design teams in lower-return areas like Hindi CUET and civil services. Acko trimmed about 5% of its workforce while moving toward a proposed IPO. Livspace’s case was sharper, with around 1,000 employees affected as the company framed the restructuring around becoming AI-native.

This is the new playbook: call it AI, call it streamlining, call it operating discipline. But at the P&L level, it does one thing quickly. It removes recurring salary costs.

The financial levers are equally important. Companies are leaning heavily on adjusted EBITDA, where ESOP costs, restructuring charges and one-time experiments can be added back. Marketing experiments are stopped. Loss-making city launches are paused. High-CAC customer segments are abandoned. “Other income” and treasury gains are watched closely because investors know these can make numbers look better than the core business really is.

The pressure is coming from venture capital too. Funds raised between 2015 and 2018 are ageing. LPs no longer want only TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In), which is mostly paper value. They want DPI (Distributed to Paid-In), which is actual cash returned. That makes IPOs attractive even at lower valuations. A marked-up private valuation is nice. A listed share that can be sold is better.

Sector by sector, the pattern is visible. Insurtech is moving from gross written premium growth to underwriting discipline. Edtech is abandoning online-only fantasy for higher-ARPU hybrid coaching. Quick commerce is talking less about dark-store expansion and more about throughput, fees and cash burn reduction. Zepto has reportedly cut quarterly burn from ₹1,200 crore to ₹850-900 crore while preparing investors for profitability by FY29.

The risk is that some startups may become profitable by shrinking, not by improving.

If product, design and R&D are cut too deeply, the company may look clean for the DRHP but weaker after listing. That is the hollow-core problem. Public investors may get a neat balance sheet, but not necessarily a durable business.

The IPO supercycle is real.

But so is the financial engineering behind it. The winners will be startups that show operating leverage, not only cost-cutting. Because profitability created by discipline can last.

Let’s go through what else is happening in Indian startup world - Grab your simmering cup of StartupChai.in and unwind with our hand-brewed memes.

“Sahi Hai Boss”: Google Mulling Manufacturing AI Servers In India, Says Ashwini Vaishnaw

Google may soon build AI servers in India, according to IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. After meeting senior Google executives, Vaishnaw said the tech giant is seriously exploring local manufacturing plans.

If it happens, India could become a key base for producing the powerful machines that train and run cutting-edge AI models.

Read more here

“Haal Kya Hai Janab Ka”: Adda247 Lays Off 20% Workforce Ahead Of IPO

Edtech unicorn Adda247 has laid off about 20% of its workforce, impacting nearly 200 employees across multiple teams.

The restructuring comes as the exam-prep platform tightens operations and prepares for a potential IPO in the next 12 to 18 months.

Read more here

“Aaj Se Tum Hamare Hue”: Wingreens Nets ₹120Cr; Acquires Safe Harvest

Wingreens has closed a ₹120Cr Series D led by Ashish Kacholia while acquiring pesticide-free brand Safe Harvest via share swap.

The move adds 100,000+ farmers to its platform, joining Raw Pressery and Saucery in a bid to dominate the "clean-label" food segment. The capital will fuel supply chain integration and aggressive retail distribution.

Read more here

1. Kathy's Beverages, the company behind bubble tea brand Bobakat, has raised ₹6 Cr in a pre-Series A round to fuel product innovation and team expansion. Looks like Bobakat is brewing more than just bubble tea; it is stirring up its next phase of growth.

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2. Lavella, a startup making eco-friendly detergent sheets, has raised a seed round led by Sifat Khurana to expand R&D and market reach. Founded by six Tetr College students, the company is trying to make laundry a little lighter on the planet.

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3. Bengaluru-based NORI secured $350K in pre-seed funding led by Rebalance and Vijay Shekhar Sharma to scale its women-centric luggage and organizers. Co-founded in 2025, the brand has already hit a ₹2 crore ARR.

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4. Bengaluru’s Flo Mobility secured $2.5M in pre-Series A funding to scale its autonomous material-handling robots across India and the Middle East. Its flagship Flo Hauler has already slashed client costs by 45% across major sites like L&T and Godrej.
   Read more here

5. Noida-based Sindhuja Microcredit raised $5M from existing backers including Abler Nordic and GAWA Capital to expand lending to rural women entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Managing over ₹1,100 crore in assets across 12 states, the NBFC-MFI will use the capital to strengthen its 366-branch network.
   Read more here