Pine Labs IPO brings cupcakes and big returns for VC firm Peak XV, days after Groww IPO
Peak XV Partners marked the Pine Labs IPO with trays of cupcakes this week, celebrating what has become one of the venture capital firm’s most lucrative bets.
Peak XV Partners marked the Pine Labs IPO with trays of celebratory cupcakes this week, a sweet touch to what has become one of the venture capital firm’s most lucrative bets. The firm’s early and sustained investment in the fintech company has now translated into a massive windfall, cementing Pine Labs as one of its standout successes.

Peak XV first backed Pine Labs in 2009 and later committed roughly $32–35 million in the company’s major institutional round in 2014. Over the years, the firm has steadily monetised part of its holding, realising about $550 million through secondary transactions.
Ahead of the IPO, it still owned just over 20% of the company — a stake valued at around $570 million — and is expected to retain nearly 17% even after listing. The latest partial exit through the offer-for-sale component has delivered a return of nearly 40 times its initial investment, according to an Economic Times report.
Cupcakes for Pine Labs IPO
Sharing photographs of the cupcakes decorated with Pine Labs branding, Peak XV managing director Ashish Agrawal wrote on X, “2nd cupcake day at @peakxvpartners offices this week. Thanks to my partner @sjs_day1 for 16 yrs of conviction and effort! Congratulations to @PineLabs for a successful listing!”
Agrawal was referring to the IPO of Groww when he mentioned “second cupcake day”.
On the National Stock Exchange, Groww shares opened at 112 rupees apiece and later rose to 124 rupees, outperforming the issue price of 100 rupees in its 754 million dollar IPO, as reported by Reuters.
Peak XV was among the early investors in Groww.
About the Pine Labs IPO
Pine Labs made a strong debut on the Indian bourses on Friday, opening at ₹242 per share — a 9.5% premium to its issue price of ₹221 — on both the BSE and NSE. The stock continued to climb through the day, rising more than 24% to trade around ₹275 on the NSE and ₹274.85 on the BSE.
ABOUT THE AUTHORSanya JainSanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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