An SME IPO is said when a Small or Medium Enterprise sells its shares to the public for the first time in order to raise capital for the business. SMEs are generally traditional, conservative family-run businesses who have little to no desire to share control over their businesses with external shareholders. Hence outside investors are not inducted in the business. However, with the listing, the promoters can retain significant control over the company without much interference in day to day operations. 

Listing an SME through an IPO can cost the company anywhere from Rs. 30 lakhs to Rs. 60 lakhs, or maybe even more depending on the issue size, the companies’ capital structure and financial structure.

The SME IPO platforms are quickly gaining traction and turning into a robust funding source for start-ups. There have been over 300 listings on the BSE SME and over 180 listings on the NSE SME. These exchanges have been flexible enough to offer an easy and simple listing procedure for SMEs.

Listing companies on the SME platform have made SMEs accessible to various growth opportunities and company value addition. These listed SMEs can further grow and become eligible to be listed on the mainboard IPO platforms.

To make SME IPO listing easier, the Indian Government offers various schemes and programmes like Skill India, Make in India, Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana and Public Procurement Policy which have tremendously helped agricultural and manufacturing enterprises. Further, the Tamil Nadu Government has announced assistance to SMEs for listing & raising money in the SME stock exchange with a maximum of Rs.30.00 lakhs subject to 50% of the total expenditure incurred on SME IPO.