ESDS Software Solutions: From Pre-IPO Pick to 111% Stock Gains

​

While other IPOs only promise investors, ESDS Software Solutions Limited proved its worth when it went public on Dalal Street on September 4, 2026. The stock of the Nashik-based artificial intelligence-driven cloud services company was up by 76% at the time of listing. And even after that, it continued going up during the day and reached as high as 111%. For those investors who had been holding on to the shares of the company since before its listing – and some of them would have gained access to it via platforms such as Planify – this listing would not have been an exciting moment; rather, a reward for the decision that they had taken months, and sometimes years, back. This is the story of how ESDS became one of the most successful market debuts of 2026 despite being an unlisted company until then.

ESDS Software Solutions: The Pre-IPO Journey Behind a Standout Market Debut

ESDS Software Solutions was founded in August 2005 and has spent over two decades creating the business that retail investors came to know about only when its IPO was launched. It provides end-to-end cloud infrastructure, managed services, data center operations, and software solutions using artificial intelligence to serve BFSI institutions, governments, and enterprises in India and beyond. The proprietary eNlight cloud infrastructure solution created by ESDS Software Solutions, which has both patent and auto-scalability capabilities, has served as the key differentiating factor for the company in the competition against big names such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, especially in segments like BFSI and government, where data sovereignty and compliance become as important as computational power. It operates from three centers located at Navi Mumbai, Nashik, and Bengaluru that cover 50,000 square feet area with a 10 Gbps connectivity speed backbone. The company has built the kind of business that needs huge infrastructural investments that usually remain private for a long period of time, and that's precisely why the pre-IPO shares of ESDS Software Solutions had already become a trade.

ESDS Software Solutions' IPO and Listing Day Performance

The ESDS IPO worth ₹720 crores was a prime example of pent-up demand. The offering, which was only a fresh issue consisting of 1,67,83,216 shares, without any offer-for-sale component, commenced bidding on August 28, 2026, and ended on September 1, 2026, with a price range of ₹408-429 per share. Within a short while after the bidding closed, the issue had been oversubscribed 142.88 times: qualified institutional buyers applied for 275 times their allotted shares; non-institutional investors were 200 times their allotment, and retail investors were almost 41 times their allocation. Even before the commencement of bidding for the issue, ESDS had raised ₹216 crores through anchor investors.

This demand was quickly demonstrated right from the beginning. ESDS' listing prices were ₹757 at a 76.46% premium to the issue price of ₹429 on the NSE, and ₹746.30 at a 73.96% premium to its issue price on the BSE. This surge was far from over. During the very session, the scrip surged to its 20% upper circuit price of ₹908.40 on the NSE and ₹895.55 on the BSE, representing an increase of about 111.75% and 108.75%, respectively, in comparison with the issue price. At the end of the first day of listing, the market capitalization of ESDS had reached ₹10,647 crore on the NSE and ₹10,497 crore on the BSE, with an overall turnover of more than ₹1,461 crore.

The Pre-IPO Opportunity: How Planify Investors Accessed ESDS Early

Even before ESDS had rung the stock exchange’s opening bell, its shares had been traded in the private market, the very platform where Planify thrives. ESDS made its first draft filing to go public in December 2021, but because of adverse market conditions at the time, the firm withdrew its offer, making it continue operating as a privately held business for several years until its public listing in 2026. Within this period, the platforms tracking privately-held companies — including Planify — have monitored ESDS as one of the prominent players in the pre-IPO cloud infrastructure segment, given its robust financial performance, strong ties with the government and BFSI sectors, and its recent IPO efforts following the hiring of DAM Capital Advisors as its book-running lead manager.

Pre-listed share prices of ESDS were offered in the range of ₹410 just before the official IPO application — a value which could be accessed by an investor using platforms such as Planify long before the pricing of ₹408–429 was decided for its IPO. And that is precisely the essence of pre-IPO investing: being able to invest in a company at a valuation that was privately negotiated instead of one that came at IPO day due to retail madness, and holding until the IPO happens. In the case of ESDS, the IPO price of ₹429 and further listing day gains were simply the next steps in a journey they had already started.

Listing Premium and Post-Listing Price Momentum

However, the tale did not come to an end there. ESDS kept on getting buying interest even in the coming week and made new 20% upper circuits in various sessions during that period. By September 8, 2026, the stock managed to touch the price of ₹1,308.05, which was an increase of almost 205% compared to its ₹429 issue price, and marked a new 52-week high for the stock in that period. Nevertheless, the run continued for the stock: by September 9, with the announcement of a new ₹1.25 billion AI infrastructure deal and a "Buy" initiation from Choice Equity Broking at the price target of ₹1,550, the stock managed to make another upper circuit at the price of ₹1,438.85, which was beyond ₹15,300 crore in terms of market capitalization.

Let’s try to be more precise about the figures we’re talking about here. It wasn’t the 111% rise during the listing day, since that was the rise above the circuit limit on that one day, in contrast to the 76% gain on the day of listing; rather, it was the post-listing move that made it touch 205% and 235%. For investors assessing such results, it is all of this process starting from the issue price, then the listing price, and the days after listing that determines the actual returns, and one needs to keep in mind that when a stock goes up by three times in one week, it might just as well come down.

From Unlisted to NSE/BSE-Listed: ESDS' Growth Trajectory

While it might seem like the positive investor sentiment stems from scarcity of IPOs, the real driver behind it is the accelerating performance of the core business itself. ESDS generated revenue of ₹376.64 crore in FY25 and increased it to ₹480.65 crore in FY26, showing a growth of 28% YoY. Even more impressively, the profitability of the company showed an even sharper improvement – from ₹55.61 crore in FY25 to ₹120.82 crore in FY26, which is a 117% increase and resulted in EPS of about ₹12 in FY26. This level of operating leverage – where profit grows almost five times faster than revenues – is exactly the tipping point when it comes to re-rating post-IPO.

The funds raised by the IPO will be used in furthering that process: growing data centre capacity to 14-20 MW in the next one to two years, developing cloud infrastructure with AI-driven GPUs to take advantage of increased enterprise AI workloads, and raising long-term working capital. Promoters Piyush Somani, Komal Somani, and the P.O. Somani Family Trust kept an overall stake of 45.78% before the IPO, resulting in an entrepreneur-owned, concentrated shareholder base that pre-IPO investors find attractive in that very way.

What This Means for Future Pre-IPO Opportunities on Planify

The journey of ESDS — from its initial quotation of ₹410 as an unlisted stock to an immediate surge past 111% on its listing day and an additional jump above 200% within days — makes for an excellent example of why investors monitor the unlisted market in the first place. It was not a question of making a quick buck on IPO day but years of steady revenue growth and a credible cloud infrastructure business, together with some key tie-ups with the government and BFSI sector that investors identified as soon as the company got listed.

This is the type of story that platforms such as Planify are meant to bring out by spotting the fast-growing, well-managed private firms before the IPO launch renders them a rush to retail investors. It is not every IPO pre-list firm that will turn into another ESDS story, since subscription craze, stock price pop at listing, and sustained run-ups are not the norm. The shares are also not always without their risks, as unlisted stocks have different valuation and liquidity risks from listed ones on the NSE and BSE, but for those ready to do their homework on revenues and margins before the listing, ESDS is a good reminder of why there is a pre-IPO phase in the first place.

​