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One blockbuster listing after another is keeping India’s startup IPO market buzzing. After Shiprocket’s strong debut last month, ESDS extended its post-listing rally for the sixth consecutive trading session on Friday, with the stock now up 306% from its IPO price of ₹429. Now, the spotlight is shifting to furniture rental startup RentoMojo. If its IPO subscription is anything to go by, investors are already lining up for the next big listing. The ₹1,256 Cr issue closed with a whopping 72.88X overall subscription, led by a strong QIB response, while retail investors subscribed 15.59X. The IPO, which opened on September 9 and closed on September 11, attracted bids for 158.7 Cr equity shares against 217.7 Cr shares on offer. The frenzy was not confined to the primary market either. In the grey market, Rentomojo shares were commanding a premium of around 37% on Friday, adding further fuel to the listing buzz. What makes RentoMojo’s subscription numbers striking is the crowded IPO calendar the issue had to contend with. The furniture rental company was competing for investor attention with five other mainboard IPOs that opened on September 9, with some issues attracting significantly more muted demand. If one is to look at the broader trend, a steady flow of money into mutual funds is keeping the sentiment around IPOs buoyant. At the same time, investors are increasingly shifting capital from the secondary market to the primary market, with even FPIs redirecting money towards new listings. "There is also a growing FOMO around companies that can show strong fundamentals. Recent listings such as ESDS Software, which has more than doubled from its IPO price in a week of trading, have given investors another reason to chase the primary market," an analyst said. While RentoMojo is not in the software game, it has the numbers to support some of this enthusiasm which may be trickling into consumer services. Its operating revenue rose 45.5% to ₹387 Cr in FY26, from ₹266 Cr in FY25, while profit after tax jumped nearly 142% to ₹104.3 Cr from ₹43.1 Cr. However, the latter was partly boosted by a ₹36.6 Cr tax credit. Beyond the numbers, is there a trigger behind investors flocking to back the IPO? RentoMojo’s Asset-To-Revenue Flywheel While RentoMojo is being seen as a consumer services business, its real moat lies in the physical infrastructure and the operations systems that power the furniture rentals and the subscription model. For the sake of simplicity, it can be viewed as an asset-utilisation business wrapped in a technology and subscription layer. In this case, RentoMojo buys the assets i.e. furniture and appliances and offers them through rentals to customers who pay a fee each month. When the tenure expires or the customer terminates the service, the company recovers the assets, refurbishes them and puts them back into circulation. By March 31, 2026, RentoMojo had 8.51 Lakh live items, with 83.34% of them being rented out. Management estimates that its furniture and appliances can remain useful for about 10 years. Some of its older assets are showing the benefit of that model. More than 56% of the assets added in 2017 and 60.92% of those added in 2018 were still generating revenue in FY26. Assets added in 2017 had already generated revenue equivalent to 5.12X their original cost. That is where the business can build a flywheel. The more often an asset is rented, refurbished and put back to work, the more revenue RentoMojo can extract from the original investment. The company describes this through three linked engines: ecommerce to acquire customers, subscriptions to generate recurring revenue and manage credit, and recommerce to recover and redeploy assets. RentoMojo says its supply chain infrastructure, operations systems and technology layer ties the three together. This includes tracking assets, forecasting demand and churn, optimising logistics and monitoring refurbishment. Redseer estimates India’s home furniture and appliance rental market grew from about ₹350 Cr in 2021 to ₹1,550 Cr in 2025, and could reach roughly ₹6,030 Cr by 2030. Rentomojo already had an estimated 42-47% share of the organised market in FY25. The Other Side Of The Model The same model that gives RentoMojo an easy route to operating leverage also increases complexities. The company has to not only spend money to acquire customers, but throughout the lifecycle of the customer and even after the customer has ended the relationship. The cost of collections, refurbishing and redeploying the asset has to be recovered through the rental fees and other costs paid by the customer during the lifetime of their relationship. Maximising this and recovering the cost faster will be the key challenge for RentoMojo. One way to do that will be to increase the cost of rentals, but this could adversely affect new customer acquisition. So the journey to maximising the profits will need the right spurs at different levels. In FY26, RentoMojo spent ₹28 Cr on logistics, ₹38 Cr on contractual manpower, ₹19 Cr on refurbishment and ₹21 Cr on performance marketing. These are recurring costs that can rise as the company adds subscribers and expands its asset base. As a listed company, these cost centres will become a key focus for investors examining the company’s trajectory. Depreciation is another important part of the equation. This rose 44% to ₹70 Cr in FY26 as the company invested more heavily in rental assets. At a certain point, assets will have to be written off and the model and category is such that procurement of new assets cannot halt. These are risks that investors have not yet had to consider because the company’s disclosures are only just beginning. The company needs to keep its assets productive for longer, control refurbishment costs and redeploy them quickly when customers return them. This makes the quality of RentoMojo’s profits an important metric to watch. RentoMojo has a growing market, a strong market position and the ability to generate revenue from the same asset multiple times. But investors will also want to see whether that growth can translate into sustainable profits. As of March 31, 2026, RentoMojo had 2.54 Lakh live subscribers across 29 cities and 8.51 Lakh live rental items, according to its RHP. Investors will be watching both numbers closely, particularly the company’s asset utilisation rate, as it expands. Competition adds another layer of potential risk for investors in the long run. Furlenco is said to be eyeing an IPO in the second half of 2027. The RentoMojo rival saw a 20X growth in profits in FY26, which has allowed it to start talking to investors to raise a pre-IPO round as well as a public listing in the next 12-14 months. RentoMojo’s First-Mover Premium RentoMojo is the first established player in its category to go public. This scarcity could work in the favour of the IPO investors and the listing could be at a high premium though nothing is certain. A similar pattern played out with Urban Company’s listing last year. Limited float and the scarcity value attached to a consumer tech IPO could result in high initial gains, but the real test anyway will be whether RentoMojo can sustain earnings after the listing. If the stock lists at a high valuation, the margin for error will be small. Investors are likely to watch the next three to four quarters to see whether profitability holds up as RentoMojo scales. The narrative is familiar in the startup ecosystem: companies can post strong IPO numbers, step up spending on new categories or markets after listing, and see profits come under pressure again. For RentoMojo, the primary objective will be to not be part of this narrative. MARKETS WATCH: NEW ISSUES, POST-IPO JOURNEY & MORE EMT Cofounder Pledges 99% Shares: Nishant Pitti has pledged additional shares worth ₹211.9 Cr to Motilal Oswal, taking his total encumbered holding to nearly 99% of his stake. The disclosure comes as the OTA faces mounting losses and pressure to revive growth. Fintech Stocks Rally On Potential UPI MDR Fee Rollout: On Friday, Paytm, Pine Labs, Mobikwik and AvenuesAI shares surged after reports indicated UPI merchant discount rate (MDR) fees could soon be notified, boosting investor sentiment across fintech stocks. Zomato Introduces Variable ‘Pay on Delivery’ Fee On Select COD Orders: Zomato has started charging a separate ₹5–₹13 ‘Pay on delivery’ fee on some COD orders, adding another charge alongside existing platform, delivery, packaging and tax fee. Swiggy Sells LYNK To Udaan In ₹500 Cr Deal: Swiggy is selling its retail distribution platform LYNK to Udaan’s parent entity in a share-swap transaction that values the business at ₹500 Cr.
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