New Delhi, Aug. 19 -- US-based startup accelerator Y Combinator (YC) has sold more stake in fintech company Groww, taking advantage of a surge in the company's share price that helped it generate multibagger returns on its investment.
The California-headquartered investor, which has backed more than 150 startups in India including ecommerce marketplace Meesho, fintech and digital payments gateway Razorpay, and quick-commerce unicorn Zepto, has cut its stake in the Mumbai-listed stock-broking platform for the second time in less than four months.
In the latest sale, Y Combinator entity YC Holdings II sold nearly 74.7 million shares of Groww operator Billionbrains Garage Ventures Ltd for Rs 1,435.2 crore ($150 million). This translates to about 1.19% stake in Groww and reduces YC's holding to about 8.6%, according to VCCircle estimates based on stock-exchange data.
This is YC's third liquidity move from Groww since the Bengaluru-based company went public in November.
At the time, YC held a 13.25% stake in Groww through two entities. One of these entities, YCCG21 LP, is a co-investment vehicle that has retained its 1.2% stake through the IPO and afterwards.
Meanwhile, YC Holdings II cashed out about Rs 1,055 crore ($118 million then) in the IPO. In May this year, it reduced its stake by 1.44% via open market share sales, pocketing Rs 1,642.3 crore (about $172 million).
The latest partial exit brings YC Holdings II's overall harvest from Groww to Rs 4,132.3 crore, or about $440 million.
The share sale was executed at a 56x multiple on a blended cost basis, back-of-the-envelope calculations show. That's up from the 29x multiple it fetched at the time of the IPO, as Groww's shares have nearly doubled.
Groww was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2018 cohort. The YC Continuity Fund, a growth-stage vehicle that backs Y Combinator's alumni companies, separately led Groww's $30 million Series C funding round in September 2020.
Overall, YC Holdings II infused nearly Rs 255 crore across multiple tranches through the years. It has already taken out 16 times its total principal investment and still holds stake worth Rs 9,050 crore. The co-investment vehicle separately holds a stake worth Rs 1,426 crore. This means YC's total harvest from Groww could exceed $1.5 billion if the company's share price holds or rises from current levels.
Groww's IPO
Founded in 2017 by former Flipkart employees Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, Groww offers stockbroking and direct mutual fund investments, among other financial products.
The Bengaluru-based company shifted its domicile from the US to India in 2024 to pursue a local listing. It filed the draft red herring prospectus via the confidential route in May 2025 and received SEBI approval in August 2025.
The fintech company raised Rs 1,060 crore through a fresh issue of shares in the IPO last November. Existing investors, including Indian venture capital firm Peak XV Partners as well as US-based investors Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global and Y Combinator, divested shares worth Rs 5,572 crore.
The IPO was covered 9.7 times. Groww made a strong debut on the stock exchanges on November 12, 2025, with its shares jumping 14%. Since then, the shares have surged even higher and are currently almost 94% higher than the IPO price, giving the company a market capitalization of Rs 1,21,833 crore, or about $12.7 billion.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.