Over Rs 2 crore in 8 minutes! Here's how Ashneer Grover earned big via Zomato IPO

BharatPe's former MD Ashneer Grover earned a cool Rs 2.25 crore within 8 minutes of Zomato's massive stock market listing last year. 

In his tell-all memoir 'Doglapan: The Hard Truth about Life and Start-Ups', the former 'Shark Tank India' judge explained how he used leverage to earn big bucks in matter of few minutes. 

"It was, however, a case of simple leverage—IPO financing. While I invested Rs 5 crore from my pocket, Kotak Wealth got me financing for Rs 95 crore at an interest rate of 10 per cent annualised for a week (the period for which IPO funds get blocked). This cost of Rs 20 lakh as interest was an additional cost for acquiring the shares," Grover wrote in the book published by Penguin. 

Owing to oversubscription, Grover got the food delivery platform's shares worth Rs 3 crore at the issue price of Rs 76 per share. The stock opened at Rs 116 in July 2021 and Grover exited the company's shares at Rs 136 apiece within 8 minutes of listing. 

"By the time the trade got executed, I got a selling price of Rs 136 per share. With my landing cost after interest being between Rs 82–85, I ended up making over Rs 2.25 crore," Grover wrote in his book.

However, later in 2021, Grover faced backlash over his alleged spat with a Kotak Mahindra Bank's official over non-allotment of Nykaa's shares. 

An audio clip went viral on social media allegedly of the startup millionaire threatening to kill a Kotak bank employee for failing to get him the Nykaa IPO allocation. Ashneer Grover reacted to the viral audio clip, claiming that it is fake.

After the Zomato success, Grover tried to replicate it with Car Trade IPO but ended up losing Rs 25 lakh.

In the book, he wrote creating a stock market public equity portfolio is not his cup of tea. "I have been certain that if you hedge your bets, you get mediocre returns. What excites me is putting money behind high-risk early-stage founders," he wrote.