After months of waiting, it’s finally here. Ather Energy will be the first mainboard IPO for FY26, and the first for the year from the startup ecosystem, joining our list of new-age tech stocks.

The excitement around IPOs has been tempered to some extent by the ongoing global economic policy back-and-forth over tariffs and imports and exports, but Ather has already waited too long. In the time between getting approval from SEBI way back in December to now, Ather has learnt some key lessons from the Indian EV market.

The fact that rival Ola Electric has had its share of problems was a sign for Ather to get everything in place for the IPO, which opens tomorrow morning. Ola Electric went for an IPO six years after its launch in 2018; Ather Energy has taken twice that time. Patience was never a problem for Ather in that sense.

It also waited nearly five months for the listing after getting the go-ahead, but now the Ather story has some more teeth to it for investors.

Has Ather Energy Turned It Around?

When we last looked at Ather’s IPO prospects, the biggest challenge we saw was the company’s slow sales growth. But now, some of those concerns have been allayed with doubts over the true count of sales and registrations for Ola Electric. Ather’s growth numbers seem relatively stable in comparison to Ola’s spiky record.

Profitability has also improved, even as Ola Electric’s consolidated net loss widened 50% to INR 564 Cr in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25 (Q3 FY25) from INR 376 Cr in the year-ago quarter, hurt by lower revenue.

According to an Axis Capital report this week, the company has focused on improving gross margins by reducing the bill of materials (BOM) cost of scooters through strategic investments in R&D capabilities, such as key components and technologies.

Designing components in-house has led to improved cost structures such that in April 2024, the company’s Ather Rizta family scooter series had 7% lower average BOM cost than the other Ather 450 series.

As a result of this change, adjusted gross margin more than doubled to 19% in 9MFY25 from 9% in 9MFY24.

Revenue from operations has grown 329% between March 2022 and March 2024, and a further 28% from December 2023 to December 2024. Losses for the first........

© Inc42