

Private credit fuels founder buybacks ahead of public listings
Mumbai: Private credit is stepping in ahead of public listings to help founders and promoters consolidate stakes or shore up capital as investors seek partial or full exits amid equity market uncertainty.Over the past 12-14 months, founders or promoters of companies including Leap India, Symbiotec Pharma, Vivriti Group, Zepto, InMobi, Lenskart and Zetwerk have engaged in such transactions ahead of their initial public offerings (IPOs), multiple people familiar with the matter told Mint. “Credit is increasingly being used as a flexible pool of capital to capture these opportunities and, in some cases, to provide exits to their investors, especially when public/IPO markets are facing headwinds,” said Aakash Desai, chief investment officer (CIO) & head of private credit at 360 ONE Asset, which closed its fifth private credit fund with a $400 million corpus earlier this week.
“We see this trend coming back in a big way and continuing as we deploy more capital into financing such transactions.”India’s private credit market has expanded rapidly, with a wave of domestic and global investment firms offering faster, more flexible capital than traditional lenders can provide to companies. Private credit deployed in India hit a record $12.4 billion in 2025, growing about 35% over the previous year, according to estimates from consulting firm EY.
The growth was driven by demand for refinancing and capital expenditures in real estate, healthcare, and infrastructure.“A lot of businesses we are seeing today are undergoing tremendous growth and are seeing large order books. Some of them have a great earnings cycle,” Desai said.
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