🎬THE YEAR PROFITS STARTED TO APPEAR OUT OF THIN AIR
It’s becoming the oldest trick in India’s new economy playbook — bleed losses for years, show one magical profit just before the IPO, and then cash out on public money.
Mamaearth did it in 2023.
Lenskart did it in 2025.
BoAt is preparing to do it next.
And sugar Cosmetics is already rehearsing for its 2026 debut.
Every story sounds the same: “After years of losses, we’ve finally turned profitable.”
Right in time for the Initial Public Offering.
Coincidence? Hardly.
Welcome to India’s IPO illusion industry — where “profitability” isn’t earned, it’s choreographed.
💄 THE MAMAEARTH MIRACLE THAT WASN’T
Mamaearth — once the darling of the D2C revolution — filed its IPO at a ₹325 offer price, backed by aggressive marketing and emotional storytelling.
The founders had everything: Shark Tank fame, influencer endorsements, and “sustainable skincare” branding.
But beneath the glow, the numbers told another story.
Loss-making for three consecutive years, the company suddenly “turned profitable” in 2023 — just months before the IPO.
Investors rushed in. The stock is listed.
Today? It trades around ₹271, below the issue price.
The “profitability” served its purpose — to sell the story.
The post-listing reality is what investors are now paying for.
👓 LENSCART: THE NEXT GLAMOUR SHOW
Now, Lenskart — the eyewear giant led by Shark Tank’s Peyush Bansal — has followed the exact same script.
Three years of losses.
Sudden profitability in 2025.
And a high-profile IPO is waiting in the wings.
It’s the same formula — build valuation through VC hype, showcase token profits in one financial year, and then offload the risk to retail investors through a glitzy IPO.
The irony? These are the same founders who sit on national television lecturing young entrepreneurs about “ethics, sustainability, and long-term vision.”
Turns out, the “vision” they care about most is their own exit.
🎧 BOAT & sugar — NEXT IN LINE FOR THE STAGE
BoAt — the lifestyle audio brand — was losing money year after year, yet it’s now “miraculously profitable” just in time to announce its IPO plans.
Sugar Cosmetics, another Shark Tank favorite, is already preparing for a 2026 IPO. The company is still in the red — but sources say it’s “projecting a profitable FY25.”
Translation: get profitable on paper, then go public.
It’s not a growth story anymore — it’s a PR story.
🧮 THE MAGIC YEAR: ONE PROFIT BEFORE PUBLIC
There’s an emerging pattern across India’s modern consumer startups:
3 years of losses
1 year of profit
IPO filed immediately after
The timing isn’t luck — it’s strategy.
A company doesn’t become profitable overnight. But accounting can be “optimized,” costs deferred, or one-time revenue counted creatively to show black ink before filing.
The result?
A polished balance sheet, a glowing pitch deck, and the illusion of stability.
Once the IPO closes and the founders cash out, reality returns — in the form of sliding stock prices and disappointed retail investors.
🏦 THE BIGGER GAME: MUTUAL FUNDS & MANAGED MONEY
But here’s the real danger.
Even if the public doesn’t buy these IPOs directly, mutual fund managers do — using your money.
These companies know that the biggest liquidity pool isn’t the retail investor — it’s the ₹50+ lakh crore sitting in indian mutual funds.
So they convince fund houses that their IPOs are “safe bets” for growth allocation.
Fund managers subscribe. The company raises money.
And the risk is now spread across millions of ordinary indians who didn’t even realize they indirectly invested in it.
Whether the IPO succeeds or fails, the insiders have already made their money.
⚖️ WHERE IS SEBI?
If India’s regulators are serious about protecting investors, it’s time for hard rules, not soft warnings.
Allowing a company to go public after one year of profitability is asking for disaster.
There should be a mandatory five-year profitability track record before any IPO approval.
Because what’s happening now isn’t entrepreneurship — it’s financial theatre.
And SEBI’s silence makes it complicit in the illusion.
🦈 SHARKS IN SUITS, TEACHING ETHICS ON TV
What makes this all more absurd is the hypocrisy.
The same founders — Mamaearth, Lenskart, BoAt, Sugar — are India’s new business celebrities, mentoring young entrepreneurs on Shark Tank India.
They preach frugality, integrity, and financial discipline — while their own companies are built on timed profits and public exit plans.
They’ve turned “entrepreneurship” into prime-time entertainment, and the stock market into their afterparty.
It’s no longer Shark Tank — it’s Scam Tank.
🧨 THE IPO PARADOX — PROFIT IS A PRODUCT NOW
In India’s startup economy, profit is no longer an outcome. It’s a product.
It’s built, packaged, and timed for launch.
The new-age founders don’t dream of long-term sustainability — they dream of a successful listing and a quick liquidation.
Once the IPO closes, the profits disappear, the stock falls, and the story moves on — until the next “miracle turnaround” appears.
This is not innovation.
This is manipulation — wrapped in optimism.
💬 THE CONCLUSION: WHEN PROFITS LIE, people PAY
Every great financial bubble is built on belief — and India’s startup scene is running out of believers.
If this pattern continues, IPOs will stop being symbols of growth and start being red flags of exit strategies disguised as success.
It’s time india stopped celebrating “last-minute profitability” and started demanding consistent, accountable performance.
Because the real investors — the middle-class indians whose SIPs fund these fairy tales — deserve better than to be the exit plan for celebrity CEOs.
Until then, the sharks will keep circling — and India’s investors will keep bleeding.
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