Fractal IPO: India’s First Pure-Play AI Listing, Cautious Welcome

The February 2026 listing of Fractal Analytics marked a milestone as India’s first pure-play artificial intelligence (AI) firm to enter the public markets. The Mumbai-based company’s IPO, priced at INR 857-900 per share, raised approximately INR 2,834 crore (~USD 314 million) after cutting the issue size by more than 40 per cent to make the deal more attractive amid uncertain investor sentiment.

Fractal’s IPO drew moderate investor demand, eventually closing with a subscription of roughly 2.66-2.81 times the shares on offer. According to data, Institutional buyers were the primary drivers of the issue, with qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) bidding over four times their allocation. Retail and non-institutional investor (NII) participation was significantly softer.

Financially, Fractal entered the public phase on a mixed footing: revenues rose steadily from INR 2,043.7 crore in FY23 to INR 2,816.2 crore in FY25, while profit returned after a prior-year loss. However, growth metrics and profitability levels were not in the high range that many public tech investors expect, especially for high-growth AI companies.

Debut Trading: Tepid Start

On February 16, 2026, Fractal’s shares debuted on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at approximately INR 876 per share, which is roughly 3 per cent below the INR 900 IPO price, before sliding further as the session progressed.

Shares traded down about 5-6 per cent on the first day, settling below the issue price. The muted opening highlighted the hesitation in valuations, particularly at a reported post-issue P/E north of 100x, and broader market wariness toward software and data analytics names amid macro volatility.

Fractal’s listing came amid a broader backdrop of technology stock pressure. Indian IT indices plunged in the run-up to the IPO, partly as investors reassessed traditional services models in the face of accelerating AI automation and generative AI narratives.

Aditya Birla Money cited Everest Group estimates: the data, analytics, and AI (DAAI) industry is experiencing rapid growth on the back of Gen AI adoption and is estimated to register 16.7 per cent CAGR to reach USD 310 billion by FY30 from USD 143 billion as at FY25.

“Fractal holds a leadership position in the pureplay enterprise AI space in India (as recognized by the Everest Group) with capabilities across the DAAI value chain,” said its IPO note.

Comparative Lens

To contextualise Fractal’s listing performance, it helps to consider how other data-centric tech companies have fared during and after their public offerings.

For Fractal’s IPO, ICICI’s IPO note said that the company represents a structural growth story within the Indian IT universe, driven by rising global adoption of AI and analytics. It scaled its revenues to INR 2,765 crore at a CAGR of 18 per cent over FY23-25 with EBITDA margins of 12.7 per cent in FY25.  “

“While near-term profitability may reflect continued investments in AI platforms and talent, the long-term opportunity lies in scaling platform-led revenue,” it said in the note.

US-listed C3 AI, which went public in December 2020, provides one of the more high-profile examples of an analytics-oriented AI firm’s IPO. On its first day, C3.ai more than doubled from its IPO price, briefly achieving a market value of nearly USD 9 billion.

However, like many enterprise AI stocks, C3.ai’s trajectory since its debut has been volatile, with significant swings driven by broader tech market sentiment, execution challenges, and operational metrics.

Snowflake’s 2020 IPO stands out in the analytics ecosystem for its exceptional debut performance. Priced at USD 120 per share, Snowflake’s stock closed its first trading session more than double that level, showcasing intense investor demand for cloud-native data infrastructure plays

Snowflake’s market reception highlights how differentiated business models with strong recurring revenue profiles can benefit from more robust first-day price appreciation. This comes as a contrast to Fractal’s service-centric revenue mix that may require a longer runway to demonstrate sustained ultra-high growth to the public markets.

At the time of this filing, Fractal’s shares closed at INR 888 (+4.85 per cent) on NSE and INR 887.75 (+4.76 per cent) on BSE.