With the world’s hopes and aspirations squarely on the public issues for OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic, the global markets have seen similar instances where highly successful companies or those with highly promising growth prospects have seen unprecedented interest. 

Though some of these issues have been nothing short of a long term lottery ticket for some, many companies have failed to live up to the promises, and have taken way longer to recover from the hype (or not at all). Before you plan to subscribe, check out how these IPOs have fared, and why their growth prospects should be taken with a grain of salt. 

The ones that worked

Visa Inc. (2008)

• Amount raised: About $17.9 billion 
• Reasons to go public: Visa aimed to restructure its regional associations into a single, for profit company as it looked to raise capital for technology and global expansion. It pitched itself as a technology payment network, where it aimed to generate profits through its processing fees. 
• Current status: Visa managed to decouple itself from the economic cycles with the company recording consistent profits year on year. It is now worth about $630 billion with the stocks value rising 1,980% since listing in 2008.

SoftBank Corp. – Japan mobile arm (2018)

• Amount raised: About 2.65 trillion yen (roughly $23.5 billion) in Japan’s for Softbank’s mobile subsidiary. 
• Reasons to go public: The IPO, as Japan’s biggest, aimed to raise case for the parent SoftBank Group as it aimed to crystallise the value of its mature domestic telecom business and to support SoftBank’s tech investments via its Vision Funds. The stock crashed almost 14.5% on debut, despite the company promising risk averse Japanese investors a staggering 85% dividend payout ratio.
• Current Status: Since its listing, the stock has gained about 61% to date, even as the company has maintained its dividend promises. With record revenues, the company is expecting to hit 1.1 trillion yen as its enterprise AI cloud infrastructure vertical will generate margins soon. 

Meta Platforms/Facebook (2012)

• Amount raised: Around $16 billion.
• Reasons to go public: The Mark Zuckerberg-led company aimed to raise money to invest in product and digital infrastructure investments while providing liquidity for employees and early investors  With 901 million active users back then, Facebook said that its has locked in human attention globally, and wanted to leverage that through ad monetization and its various other services. 
• Current status: Despite a chaotic IPO, Facebook (now known as Meta Platforms) saw its ad revenues skyrocket, as its legendary acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp helped it reach a market cap of roughly $1.5 trillion as of early June 2026.The stock has appreciated roughly 1,463% since its IPO. 

Alibaba Group (2014)

• Amount raised: About $25 billion after banks exercised their over allotment option.
• Reasons to go public: To raise funds for international expansion and new business lines and offer exits to early investors (notably Yahoo).  Founder Jack Ma aimed to sell Alibaba as a platform aimed at connecting the Chinese Middle Class to global brands though its business verticals. 
• Current status: Since the IPO, Alibaba’s shares have appreciated about 39%, with its valuation crossing $800 billion in 2020. Despite the decline in its market value due to corporate tech restructuring in China, Alibaba has still managed to offer a reasonable appreciation in 12 years. 

The one’s that didn’t

Saudi Aramco (2019)

• Amount raised: About $25.6 billion, valuing the company at around $1.7 trillion at IPO.
• Reasons to go public: As one of the world’s most profitable companies, the Saudi Arabia-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) aimed to monetize its oil giant to fund the country’s Vision 2030 economic diversification programme.
• Current Status: The stock has declined about 14.5% since then, with geopolitical challenges like the COVID pandemic and the West Asian war affecting it. Despite that, the company has consistently paid dividends during high margin quarters, especially to the Sauid state and its Public Investment Fund (PIF).

PayTM (2021)

• Amount raised: ₹18,300 crore with a fresh issue of ₹8,300 crore fresh issue and ₹10,000 crore Offer For Sale
• Reasons to go public: One97 Communications, the company behind PayTM, went public to raise capital for its fintech and e-commerce ecosystem, while also to offer partial exits to its existing shareholders. The company aimed to use the proceeds to create a ‘super app’, where the popular digital wallet could act as a customer acquisition tool. The real reason was to salvage the company’s decline in the UPI ecosystem, where it was relegated to the third place with 12% market share before the IPO.
• Current status: PayTM hasn’t managed to salvage its position in the market today, declining to under 8% even as it pivoted to payment processing and vendor cross selling. Since listing in November 2021, PayTM has seen its shares fall roughly 34% from its peak market cap of about Rs.1.5 lakh crore ($20 billion) held at its IPO. 

Bajaj Housing Finance Limited (2024)

• Amount raised: ₹6,560 crore  with a fresh issue of Rs.3,650 crore and an Rs.3,000 crore Offer For Sale.
• Reasons to go public: To fund aggressive loan‑book growth and strengthen the capital‑adequacy ratio while giving the housing‑finance arm an independent market identity and unlocking value for the Bajaj group. It aimed to lend to salaried, urban customers and has had a robust success to date. 
• Current status: Though BHFL has recorded a robust performance with a consistently  growing loan book and net profits, the stock is down 45% since listing as heightened demand from investors had overvalued the company in relation to its competitors. . 

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) – (2022)

• Amount raised:  ₹21,000 crore, divesting the government’s 3.5% stake.
• Reasons to go public: The government of India divested its stake in the national insurer to meet its divestment and fiscal targets, while allowing domestic policyholders to get a chance to own low risk, dividend yielding LIC shares directly.LIC’s shares listed at 8% discount, with institutional investors avoiding them initially due to its over-reliance on low margin policies. 
• Current Status: The insurance behemoth’s shares have declined about 3% since then, despite the LIC recording a 19% rise in net profit for FY26 at ₹57,419 crore while maintaining a completely debt free balance sheet. For now, it continues to remain a reliable dividend generating scrip in retail investors portfolio.