Top D2C Brands With Unlisted Shares in India

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The Indian D2C industry has blossomed from startups using Instagram as their platform to an industry worth several lakh crores annually across beauty, fashion, food, electronics and home goods. As such businesses become more successful and mature, a parallel industry has developed around them; one of selling unlisted shares (shares before the IPO). Early employees, angel investors and venture capital firms selling their shares in the unlisted share market in anticipation of going public through NSE/BSE.
This piece will explore what unlisted shares are, why D2C businesses dominate this market, and list the D2C businesses that are currently trading in the OTC (Over The Counter) Pre-IPO share market in India.

Why D2C Brands Dominate the Unlisted Market

​Unlisted shares are particularly common for India's direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, and there is a very obvious reason why that is the case: because most D2C startups have used the same business strategy bootstrap or seed money, scale up quickly through Instagram, YouTube, and quick commerce, get a few venture rounds in, grow to several hundred or a couple of thousand crore revenues and then either look for an IPO or a strategic exit. The period between when a company is labeled as a unicorn and before it goes public, is precisely the period where the trading of unlisted shares really takes off. India's own D2C market grew very rapidly as well from a few thousand crore in the later 2010s to tens of thousands of crore annually in 2026.

Top D2C Brands Currently Trading in the Unlisted Market

With the growth of their offline presence, many D2C leaders who are approaching profitability have witnessed a rising demand for their shares prior to an IPO listing. The unlisted share market is a fascinating way of looking at these exciting consumer stories before their IPO listings.

1. BoAt (Imagine Marketing Limited)

​BoAt – the audio and wearables brand established by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta in 2013-14 – is the most active D2C brand in the unlisted markets of India. It had filed for its IPO in January 2022, having an initial size of about $300 million, then pulled back its IPO application amid deteriorating market conditions, and now has resubmitted an IPO application with a target issue size of about ₹1,500 crore (fresh issue + offer-for-sale). The parent company, Imagine Marketing, has taken investments from a group of investors that include Warburg Pincus, Qualcomm Ventures, Malabar Investments, Innoven Capital, and Fireside Ventures.

The stock price of boAt on the OTC markets has fluctuated greatly depending on the prevailing market sentiment; boAt began trading on OTC markets at ₹1,225 in 2022, dropped to about ₹700-740 when the IPO was postponed amid unfavorable conditions in the market, recovered to above ₹1,200-1,600 through 2023-24 owing to rumors of upcoming IPO, and now trades in the range of ₹840-890 as of June 2026 (with the implied market capitalization of around ₹11,500-11,700 crore), following the recent SEBI observations on the fresh IPO application of boAt.

2. Licious (Delightful Gourmet Private Limited)

Licious is India’s biggest D2C meat and seafood brand company, and it has been one of the earliest unicorns in the industry. For 2026, Licious' founders announced that an IPO would be launched only in 2027-28, since they wish to become sustainable before launching an IPO and not based on growth momentum. Since Licious hasn’t submitted any IPO paperwork, liquidity in their unlisted stock will be lower compared to boAt's, and prices will be mostly based on their last funding round and not secondary trades, which several unlisted stock exchanges quote.

3. WOW Skin Science (Body Cupid Private Limited)

Amongst India’s leading “clean beauty” personal care brands selling directly to consumers (D2C), WOW Skin Science (a brand of Body Cupid Pvt Ltd) achieved a valuation of up to $280 million in 2022, thanks to investment from GIC and ChrysCapital. The company has had an inconsistent track record – revenue fell from ₹258 crore in FY23 to ₹233 crore in FY24, but net losses shrank substantially (from ₹213 crore to ₹130 crore). Media reports up until 2025 suggested that the firm was in talks to raise new capital at an enterprise value of $400 million, as well as having a strategic sale process under consideration at a significantly lower enterprise value of $250 million. Unlike boAt, WOW Skin Science has not built a liquid market for its unlisted shares – its unlisted status currently stems from being privately held and engaged in periodic secondary share transactions.

4. Country Delight (Behemoth Agri Services Private Limited)

This milk and grocery delivery business to households is scaling fast, with a FY24 revenue of ₹1,380 crore (up 46% Y-o-Y) that has been fuelled by investments from Temasek, Elevation Capital and Venturi Partners. The company has publicly discussed IPO plans and raised money pre-IPO through equity and debt financing up to FY25-26, though the firm hasn’t filed its DRHP as of mid-FY26. The stock of the company is available on some unlisted/pre-IPO exchanges (even in foreign markets for global investors), though activity on those is less than boAt’s.

5. GIVA (Jewellery)

Rapidly growing GIVA, which offers jewellery digitally first, announced in 2026 that it raised a sizable ₹530 crore funding round as one of many D2C brands getting investment in the jewellery and beauty categories. GIVA is still a private company, though there are some international platforms offering to buy shares of the company even before an IPO.

6. Snitch (Fashion)

This men’s fashion D2C brand, famous for its quick design-to-store turnaround, raised around $40 million during its funding round in 2026. The company is still private and has no plans for going public in the coming years, making it more of an “interesting name” than an active stock.

7. Other Private D2C names on investors' radar

Many other privately-held D2C companies operating on a scaled basis may attract more attention in terms of buying unlisted stocks before going public or making a sale. Examples include Mokobara (travel & luggage), The Whole Truth (clean-label food), Farmley & Foxtale (snacks & skincare, both have received a lot of money lately), and Supertails (pet care). However, there is little interest in these firms on OTC marketplaces unless the company decides to go for an IPO or raise large amounts of money in late-stage venture financing.

D2C Brands That Have Recently Moved From "Unlisted" to "Listed"

Worth noting here is that there are a few D2C brands that had the term 'unlisted shares' associated with them but have gone on to do their IPO already – giving us a good sense of how fluid this list can be:

• Honasa Consumer (Mamaearth, The Derma Co, Aqualogica) - Listed through IPO in 2023, and still India's biggest listed pure-play D2C FMCG business.
  
• Lenskart Solutions - This eyewear behemoth raised close to ₹7,279 crore through its IPO and was listed on NSE/BSE on November 10, 2025, when its unlisted shares were trading in the ₹400-₹413 range.
  
• Wakefit Innovations – This sleep and home-solutions brand that had been a regular presence on unlisted shares forums (tradable at ₹110-₹195 per share pre-listing) filed for a ₹468 crore issue through DRHP + Offer for Sale, did its pre-IPO placement with investors like DSP, 360 ONE among others, and got listed in December 2025 with a valuation of about Rs 6,300- Rs 6,400.
• BlueStone Jewellery & Lifestyle is a jewellery brand based online and has offered an IPO worth ₹1,541 crores. The IPO was priced at ₹517 and was listed on the NSE/BSE on August 19, 2025. The issue price was at a slight discount due to the company’s losses and heavy dependence on working capital.

In totality, the four companies provide an excellent example of the pipeline concept. Companies remain actively traded but unlisted for a few years, file DRHP, and then leave the unlisted market.

The Outlook

The "startup IPO" pipeline is still going strong for India leading up to 2027, with many new age companies either filing their DRHPs or set to do so. When it comes to D2C startups, there is no doubt that the future will see more and more profitable, well-funded scale players moving onto the bourses (Mamaearth, Lenskart, Wakefit, BlueStone), while boAt is the most advanced of those not yet listed; and Licious, Country Delight, GIVA and Snitch are in the process, with some preferring to put off listing till they become profitable since the attitude of investors in 2026 is profit and contribution margins over growth at any cost.