How the Unlisted Market Moved in 2025: Gainers, Losers & Key Insights

India’s unlisted ecosystem, a space once considered niche but now standing at the intersection of regulation, investor appetite, and startup maturity. What began as a quiet corner of private markets has now evolved into a semi-mainstream investment avenue, buoyed by rising Pre-IPO activity, sharper disclosures, and SEBI’s growing intent to bring this market under a structured regulatory framework.

Through the year, conversations around a dedicated SEBI-approved platform for unlisted securities became louder. While the regulator did not roll out a full-fledged marketplace, a major jumpi its working groups and consultation papers made it clear: transparency, price-discovery, and investor safeguards would eventually shape the next phase of the unlisted market. For platforms like Planify, which operate on structured due diligence, the developments signaled both validation and responsibility.

At the same time, 2025 witnessed significant churn. Some companies rode a surge in financial performance or Pre-IPO demand, while others corrected sharply reflecting business headwinds, governance concerns, or shifts in sectoral cycles.

This article walks through the  full recap of how the unlisted share market moved in 2025, based on performance:  winners and losers, sentiment, and the broader ecosystem narrative.

2025 was the year India’s unlisted market stopped being a shadow of public markets and began acting like a leading indicator. 

The Macro Picture

Three structural threads pulled the unlisted market forward this year:

A large IPO pipeline and active DRHP filings. Many late-stage startups and sizable private firms prepared prospectuses, signaling potential exits and making their private shares more interesting to buyers who wanted a pre-listing entry. SEBI’s public roster of DRHPs throughout 2025 confirms the renewed IPO thrust. 

India crossed roughly 21 crore demat accounts by October 2025, a dramatic expansion that also increases the pool of investors with the basic infrastructure to hold unlisted shares legally in demat form. That widening investor base changed the demand dynamics for pre-IPO stock.

Regulatory focus on bringing order to pre-IPO trades. SEBI’s chair has publicly discussed exploring a regulated platform for pre-IPO trading and pushed for disclosure requirements so investors get better information and pricing becomes less opaque. This signaled a likely institutionalization of a market that had long relied on informal networks and grey-market signals. 

Put together, these forces meant more flows, more scrutiny, and more price movement in select unlisted names especially those with credible exit timelines.

Sectoral winners and losers: what actually moved

Below are the Planify-tracked top gainers and laggards for 2025. These moves tell the real story of market sentiment.

Top Gainers 

Top Losers 

​

Conclusion

The unlisted market in 2025 did not behave like a speculative fad. It matured: more companies disclosed, more institutions participated, and policy signals moved the space toward formalisation. Winners were generally companies with demonstrable operational traction or imminent IPO visibility; losers were capital-intensive firms or those with execution gaps.

Crucially, SEBI’s intention to explore a regulated pre-IPO trading platform combined with growing demat penetration is the single most important structural change. If delivered with sensible disclosure and settlement protocols, it will convert much of the informal pre-IPO liquidity into a safer, more transparent market widening access while protecting investors. 

For investors, that means the unlisted market will continue to offer asymmetric returns but only for those who do homework, demand transparency, and recognize that illiquidity is the price of early access.