NSE IPO: How Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji and Other Early Investors Are Unlocking Massive Wealth
The National Stock Exchange of India’s much-awaited public listing is turning the spotlight not only on the exchange itself, but also on the investors who backed it years before it became one of India’s most valuable financial-market businesses.
At the upper end of its IPO price band of ₹1,785 per share, stakes held by a group of prominent investors, family offices and market veterans are collectively valued at nearly ₹30,000 crore, according to an analysis reported by Moneycontrol.
Among the names attracting attention are Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, Wipro founder Azim Premji, Radhakishan Damani and several institutional and private investors.
But there is an important distinction: the ₹30,000-crore figure represents the current value of their NSE holdings, not necessarily the cash they are receiving from the IPO.
Why are these investors suddenly in the spotlight?
NSE's IPO is structured entirely as an Offer for Sale (OFS).
That means existing shareholders are selling shares to public investors. NSE itself is not issuing fresh shares to raise capital, so the company will not receive the IPO proceeds from these shares.
This structure makes the IPO particularly interesting.
For early investors who continue to hold NSE shares, the listing creates a publicly traded market price for an asset that was previously difficult to sell.
In simple terms, an investment made years ago can now be valued against NSE's public-market price.
Narayana Murthy's NSE connection
Narayana Murthy's investment firm Catamaran owns around 38.5 lakh NSE shares.
At the upper IPO price of ₹1,785 per share, that holding is valued at approximately ₹687 crore.
Catamaran is not the largest shareholder among the marquee investors, but Murthy's involvement has attracted attention because of his association with India's technology and startup-investment ecosystem.
The key point is that the IPO gives the market a transparent valuation for the stake.
Azim Premji's investment is much larger
Azim Premji's investment interests in NSE are represented through PI Opportunities Fund, backed by Premji Invest.
The fund holds around 2.35% of NSE, according to IPO-related shareholding information reported by Moneycontrol.
At the IPO's upper price band, this translates into a substantial multi-thousand-crore valuation.
Premji's stake is therefore another example of how early private-market investments can become significantly more valuable when a company eventually reaches the public markets.
The bigger story is not just Murthy and Premji
The ₹30,000-crore wealth figure covers a much broader group of shareholders.
Moneycontrol's analysis estimates that the holdings covered in its report are worth around ₹29,400 crore at ₹1,785 per share.
Four major holdings — 360 ONE's investment vehicles, Tiger Global, Catamaran and another large investor group — together account for roughly ₹25,900 crore of that value.
Other prominent investors mentioned include:
- Sunil Kant Munjal
- Kris Gopalakrishnan
- Radhakishan Damani
- Raamdeo Agrawal
- Motilal Oswal
- Dolly Khanna
The list demonstrates how NSE attracted a diverse group of institutional and individual investors during its private-market journey.
Why did NSE take so long to reach the stock market?
NSE's IPO journey has been unusually long.
The exchange first filed IPO papers with SEBI in December 2016. The listing process was subsequently delayed amid regulatory proceedings linked to the co-location controversy and other matters.
Over the years, some early institutional investors chose to exit rather than wait for the eventual listing.
Moneycontrol reported that investors including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Norwest Venture Partners had exited their NSE investments by FY22, while Elevation Capital also sold shares later.
This is an important part of the story: not every early investor remained invested long enough to benefit from the eventual IPO.
NSE's enormous valuation
NSE's IPO price band was fixed at ₹1,700–₹1,785 per share.
At the upper end, the exchange's 247.5 crore outstanding shares imply a valuation of approximately ₹4.42 lakh crore.
That makes NSE one of the largest companies to enter India's public markets.
The exchange's business extends beyond simply providing a platform for buying and selling shares. Its operations include trading, clearing and settlement, indices, market data and other market-infrastructure services.
NSE has also built a massive investor ecosystem
One reason the NSE story has attracted so much attention is its scale.
Its unique registered investor base increased from around 3.09 crore in March 2020 to 13.24 crore by June 2026, according to IPO-related data reported by Moneycontrol.
NSE also had more than 26 crore registered investor accounts, 1,328 trading members and 3,005 listed entities as of June 2026.
The numbers illustrate how dramatically India's participation in the capital markets has expanded during the same period.
But ₹30,000 crore does not mean ₹30,000 crore of cash
This is perhaps the most important point for readers.
When reports say prominent investors have holdings worth nearly ₹30,000 crore, it does not mean all those investors are receiving ₹30,000 crore from the NSE IPO.
The figure represents the estimated market value of their holdings at the IPO price.
Some investors are selling shares through the OFS, while others are continuing to hold their NSE shares.
Therefore, the actual cash realised by each investor depends on how many shares they sell.
What does the IPO mean for NSE itself?
Because this is an OFS, NSE does not receive the IPO proceeds from the shares being sold.
Instead, the transaction provides an important change in the ownership structure: NSE moves from being a privately held market-infrastructure company to a publicly traded company.
The IPO also gives investors a direct way to participate in the ownership of India's largest stock exchange.
The issue consisted of up to 12.64 crore existing shares, with the IPO priced between ₹1,700 and ₹1,785 per share.
The real significance of the NSE IPO
The NSE listing is more than another large IPO.
It represents the public-market arrival of an institution that sits at the centre of India's financial system.
For early investors such as Premji-backed investment entities, Catamaran and other shareholders, the listing represents the monetisation or market valuation of investments that were made many years ago.
For public investors, meanwhile, the IPO provides an opportunity to own a piece of the exchange itself.
And for India's capital markets, the listing creates a rare situation where investors can directly own the company operating one of the country's most important financial-market platforms.
The NSE IPO therefore tells two stories at the same time: a major public-market debut and a huge wealth-unlocking event for several early shareholders.
