Snapdeal parent AceVector's Rs 420 crore initial public offering drew a cautious but steady response on the first day of bidding, with the issue subscribed 23% by 17:00 IST on September 25, according to BSE data. Investors placed bids for 1.72 crore shares against 7.42 crore shares on offer, indicating that the market was still in the early stages of price discovery for one of the most closely watched technology listings of the season.
Retail investors emerged as the strongest early participants, subscribing to 62% of their quota by the end of the day. They bid for 85.74 lakh shares against 1.37 crore shares reserved for the category, suggesting that smaller investors were more willing than institutions to take an early position in the issue. The retail appetite was visible even earlier in the day, when the category had already led overall demand with 36% subscription by 14:12 IST.
Non-institutional investors, or NIIs, also showed interest, though at a more measured pace. By the close of trading, the category had subscribed 42% of its allocation, with bids for 86.70 lakh shares against 2.06 crore shares set aside for them. Within the NII bucket, the portion for bids above Rs 2 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh was subscribed 71%, while the segment for bids above Rs 10 lakh was booked 28%, reflecting a sharper appetite among relatively smaller high-net-worth applicants than among larger ones.
Qualified institutional buyers, however, had not yet placed bids for the 3.99 crore shares reserved for them by the time of the day's close. That absence is not unusual on the first day of an IPO, particularly when institutions often wait until the final bidding window to assess demand, pricing sentiment and anchor investor response. Even so, the lack of QIB participation leaves the issue heavily dependent on the remaining days of the offer to build momentum.
AceVector has priced the issue in a band of Rs 30 to Rs 32 per share, valuing the company at up to Rs 1,741.4 crore, or about $181.7 million. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 287 crore and an offer for sale of up to 4.16 crore shares, which would fetch about Rs 133 crore at the upper end of the price band. The issue closes on September 29, and the shares are expected to list on the BSE and NSE on October 5.
Ahead of the public offering, AceVector raised Rs 189 crore from anchor investors on Wednesday. Helios Mutual Fund and Taurus Ethical Fund were the only domestic mutual funds to participate in the anchor round, together picking up 93.75 lakh shares, or 15.87% of the anchor allocation. The anchor book is often viewed as an early signal of institutional confidence, and the participation from domestic funds provides some support to the company's market debut even as broader institutional demand is still pending.
The company plans to use Rs 132 crore from the fresh issue proceeds for Snapdeal's marketing and business promotion, and another Rs 50 crore for technology infrastructure. The remaining funds are earmarked for acquisitions and general corporate purposes. The spending plan underscores AceVector's attempt to strengthen the Snapdeal brand and improve its operating backbone at a time when the company is trying to sustain relevance in India's intensely competitive ecommerce market.
Founded in 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Snapdeal was once among the most prominent challengers to Flipkart and Amazon before losing ground in the sector's consolidation phase. After the collapse of its proposed merger with Flipkart in 2017, the company shifted toward a value-focused ecommerce model, targeting more price-sensitive consumers rather than competing head-on with the largest platforms. Today, AceVector's portfolio extends beyond Snapdeal to include listed ecommerce enablement platform Unicommerce and consumer brands business Stellaro Brands. The group adopted the AceVector identity in 2022 as it sought to present itself as a broader technology-led commerce platform rather than a single-brand marketplace operator.
Financially, the company has shown signs of improvement. AceVector's restated net loss narrowed nearly 64% to Rs 45.5 crore in FY26 from Rs 126.3 crore in FY25, while operating revenue rose 29.2% to Rs 510.3 crore from Rs 395 crore. Those numbers will likely be central to investor assessment over the coming days, especially as the IPO moves toward its final subscription window and institutions decide whether to join the retail-led opening momentum.