Groww, India’s largest retail brokerage firm, is set to test the country’s public markets with a multi-billion-dollar IPO. The listing comes comes just over a year after the company restructured its corporate headquarters from Delaware back to India — a move that could make it the first Indian startup to list at home following a relocation from the U.S.
Backed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and marquee investors including Peak XV Partners, Y Combinator, Ribbit Capital, and Tiger Global, Groww’s listing — expected later this year — is set to double as a major exit opportunity for global venture funds. The four investment firms are offloading about 394 million shares — roughly 9.4% of Groww’s total equity base — per the draft IPO documents filed on Tuesday. That makes them the single largest selling bloc, accounting for about 69% of all shares being offered to the public.
Pine Labs, Razorpay, Meesho, and Zepto are among the Indian startups that have recently shifted their base back home. Walmart-backed PhonePe relocated its headquarters from Singapore to India in 2022, while Flipkart — once its parent and also backed by Walmart — similarly announced plans to move its headquarters from Singapore to India earlier this year.
Last year, Groww became one of the first startups to shift its headquarters back to India from the U.S. The startup paid around $159 million in taxes as part of the move.
Relocating their base back home helps startups align with evolving local regulations and meet requirements for domestic stock listings. It also makes sense to tap India’s public markets, given the expanding retail investor base and rising appetite for IPOs. The trend reflects the growing maturity and attractiveness of India’s capital markets compared to overseas alternatives.
While U.S. investors plan to offload a large chunk of their holdings in Groww, founders Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal together are selling only about 4 million shares — only 0.7% of the total offer for sale, per the draft prospectus.
The small sale signals that Groww’s founders are holding on to nearly all their equity, in contrast to the established investors who are using the IPO as an exit route.
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Groww plans to raise ₹10.6 billion (approximately $121 million) in new funding from the IPO, along with the secondary sale of 574 million shares by existing shareholders, expected to be priced at ₹5–6 billion (roughly $568–$682 million). The IPO is expected to value the Bengaluru-based company at $9 billion.
In the fiscal year ending March 31, Groww reported total income of ₹40.6 billion (about $462 million), up 45% year-on-year, with profit after tax of ₹18.2 billion (roughly $208 million). The startup had posted a net loss of about ₹8 billion (around $92 million) in the previous year, primarily due to expenses tied to its Delaware headquarters relocation.
As of June, Groww had about 37.4 million individual demat accounts (digital accounts that hold securities electronically), representing nearly 19% of India’s market, along with 12.6 million active clients on the National Stock Exchange, equal to a 26% share. The platform also counted around 17 million active systematic investment plans (SIPs, which are recurring monthly investments) and 9 million unique mutual fund investors, becoming the only investment app in the country to surpass 100 million cumulative downloads.
The offering is being advised by JPMorgan Chase, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Citigroup, Axis Bank and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors.
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![The Pope’s AI Warning Could Help Workers Seek Religious Exemptions From Using AI
Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on AI could set off a wave of workers seeking religious exemptions from using the tech at work. One software engineer in North Carolina already secured one last month, Business Insider reports. Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist, first sought the accommodation in April at the large tech-entertainment company where she works, which she described as progressive. She argued that using AI did not align with her religious beliefs because of environmental and ethical concerns. Maus was granted the exemption in May, before the pope’s AI remarks. “I’m writing my code and reviewing my code by hand, which seems crazy to say,” Maus told Business Insider. “Just two years ago, how else would you do it?”
Maus is unlikely to be the only person seeking a similar accommodation as companies increasingly invest in AI and push, sometimes even mandate, employees to use the technology. In the U.S., the share of employees who say they use AI at least a few times a year at work has nearly doubled from 21% to 40% in 2025, according to Gallup.
Now, the pope’s remarks and official theological document could give some workers a stronger argument. “In the era of artificial intelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human,” the pope wrote in his 43,000-word encyclical titled Magnifica Humanitas, published last month. He wrote that AI is dehumanizing society by reducing “the mystery of the person into data and performance” and called on the tech industry to avoid “the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak.”
The pope continued that “a slower pace in adopting AI does not mean opposing progress; instead, it is an exercise of responsible care for the human family.” That call for a slower adoption of AI could be enough for some workers to argue they should not be required to use it on the job. “When he’s speaking, he’s speaking as the pontiff—as a religious figure—so he’s raising these human dignity issues as religious issues, theological issues,” Jonathan Segal, an employment attorney and Duane Morris partner, told HR Brew this month. “I think it is inevitable that some employees will rely on this to say…I can’t use AI because it conflicts with a religious belief that I have.” Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for workers whose sincerely held religious beliefs conflict with a work requirement, unless the accommodation creates an undue hardship for the employer.
And it’s not a stretch to think some of these requests could at least get serious consideration. Just a few months ago, Rex Healthcare agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the company of unlawfully denying a remote employee’s request to be exempted from its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy over religious beliefs. “I think this opens a door—or it’s a little bit of a road map—for employees to raise concerns,” Segal told HR Brew. “What the courts have said—what the EEOC has most definitely said—is that, as the general proposition, we shouldn’t question the legitimacy [of] sincerely held religious beliefs.” #Popes #Warning #Workers #Seek #Religious #ExemptionsAI,Pope Leo XIV,work The Pope’s AI Warning Could Help Workers Seek Religious Exemptions From Using AI
Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical on AI could set off a wave of workers seeking religious exemptions from using the tech at work. One software engineer in North Carolina already secured one last month, Business Insider reports. Erin Maus, a Unitarian Universalist, first sought the accommodation in April at the large tech-entertainment company where she works, which she described as progressive. She argued that using AI did not align with her religious beliefs because of environmental and ethical concerns. Maus was granted the exemption in May, before the pope’s AI remarks. “I’m writing my code and reviewing my code by hand, which seems crazy to say,” Maus told Business Insider. “Just two years ago, how else would you do it?”
Maus is unlikely to be the only person seeking a similar accommodation as companies increasingly invest in AI and push, sometimes even mandate, employees to use the technology. In the U.S., the share of employees who say they use AI at least a few times a year at work has nearly doubled from 21% to 40% in 2025, according to Gallup.
Now, the pope’s remarks and official theological document could give some workers a stronger argument. “In the era of artificial intelligence, when human dignity is threatened by new forms of dehumanization, ours is the pressing duty to remain profoundly human,” the pope wrote in his 43,000-word encyclical titled Magnifica Humanitas, published last month. He wrote that AI is dehumanizing society by reducing “the mystery of the person into data and performance” and called on the tech industry to avoid “the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak.”
The pope continued that “a slower pace in adopting AI does not mean opposing progress; instead, it is an exercise of responsible care for the human family.” That call for a slower adoption of AI could be enough for some workers to argue they should not be required to use it on the job. “When he’s speaking, he’s speaking as the pontiff—as a religious figure—so he’s raising these human dignity issues as religious issues, theological issues,” Jonathan Segal, an employment attorney and Duane Morris partner, told HR Brew this month. “I think it is inevitable that some employees will rely on this to say…I can’t use AI because it conflicts with a religious belief that I have.” Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for workers whose sincerely held religious beliefs conflict with a work requirement, unless the accommodation creates an undue hardship for the employer.
And it’s not a stretch to think some of these requests could at least get serious consideration. Just a few months ago, Rex Healthcare agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing the company of unlawfully denying a remote employee’s request to be exempted from its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy over religious beliefs. “I think this opens a door—or it’s a little bit of a road map—for employees to raise concerns,” Segal told HR Brew. “What the courts have said—what the EEOC has most definitely said—is that, as the general proposition, we shouldn’t question the legitimacy [of] sincerely held religious beliefs.” #Popes #Warning #Workers #Seek #Religious #ExemptionsAI,Pope Leo XIV,work](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/05/shutterstock_2666910201-1280x853.jpg)
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