NEW DELHI: As India’s capital markets reach record-breaking volumes, the underlying infrastructure for taking companies public is undergoing a structural transformation. S45 today announced the launch of the nation’s first AI-enabled investment banking platform, designed to overcome the legacy manual workflows that have historically slowed down IPO execution for capital market issuers. The move also signals the gradual emergence of augmented investment banking, where human advisory is complemented by machine intelligence to support decision-making rather than replace it.
While investor participation in India has scaled dramatically, IPO execution remains largely dependent on fragmented email threads and static spreadsheets. S45 addresses this structural inadequacy by introducing an integrated operating system that brings transparency and data-validated precision to the entire listing lifecycle.
Deepank Bhandari, Co-Founder of S45, said: “India’s capital markets have entered an era of unprecedented scale and maturity, yet the execution frameworks powering most IPOs remain anchored in high-friction, legacy methods that haven’t kept pace with this growth. This disconnect often leaves even the strongest companies navigating a ‘black box’ of fragmented workflows and manual administrative hurdles during their most critical transition. At S45, our strategy is to bridge this gap by providing an institutional-grade infrastructure layer that empowers issuers with data-validated precision. By integrating AI-driven governance and real-time demand analytics, we are moving the industry beyond traditional approximation toward a new standard of transparency and execution certainty.”
The venture was founded by a multi-disciplinary team comprising Deepank Bhandari, Pankaj Harlalka, Aman Singh, and Tushar Sharma, who launched S45 to bridge the structural gap in the capital markets execution framework.
Market Impact and Data-Driven Outcomes
During its pilot phase, the S45 platform has already demonstrated the impact of a tech-led approach across 26 IPOs in diverse sectors, including aerospace, chemicals, healthcare, and technology. These listings have facilitated the raising of ₹1,120.8 crore in capital, supported by a proprietary data engineering stack that tracks investor demand in real-time.
Key performance benchmarks from the platform’s pilot deployments include:
- Substantial Investor Appetite:Mandates recorded an average subscription of 168.4x, with peak demand reaching 325x.
- Massive Bid Volume:The platform generated cumulative investor bids totalling ₹3,64,719 crore.
- Post-Listing Performance:Issuers achieved an average listing gain of 43.1%, with an average “listing pop” of 47.1% recorded over the last twelve months.
Modernising the “Black Box” of Investment Banking
The platform integrates several critical functions into a single intelligence layer: eligibility verification, version-controlled disclosure management, SEBI query lifecycle tracking, and valuation models linked to live sector comparables. This move toward “Precision Banking” enables intermediaries and issuers to move away from approximation, ensuring better price discovery and stronger post-listing investor relations.
As public market activity in India is expected to remain robust, S45 is positioning its AI-native stack as the core operating layer for the next generation of Indian issuers seeking execution certainty and global governance standards.
Solving the “30-Day” Bottleneck
The platform is designed to modernise the end-to-end IPO lifecycle, reducing the time required to determine IPO readiness to just 30 minutes and bringing Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) preparation time down to a projected 7 days. By embedding AI-driven validation and regulatory process mapping, the platform allows boards and CFOs to gain real-time visibility into their listing journey while significantly reducing regulatory friction.
