Sebi readies draft for Nasdaq-like trading platform | Economic Times

New Delhi: Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which has been trying to get its Innovators Growth Platform (IGP) off the ground, is expected to come out with its latest draft for the platform, which has been touted as India’s answer to global tech bourses, such as Nasdaq. IGP, which has been in the works for some years now, and was previously known as the Institutional Trading Platform, before being renamed last year, has found few takers till date, with the Indian startup and venture capital ecosystem asking for a number of recommendations to be included in the latest draft of the IGP. Two key suggestions include having Indian family offices, a number of which are largely structured as trusts to be added to the list of accredited investors, which currently have only individuals and body corporates, and making the delisting norms easier, to facilitate more potential mergers and acquisitions and exits. “In India, most family offices have been structured as trusts. Family offices are currently sitting on $2.1 trillion of assets. While most of it is currently in listed markets, they are now slowly coming over to invest in startups and other alternative assets. You have to have them on board,” a venture capital investor said on the condition of anonymity. An email sent to Amarjeet Singh, executive director at Sebi, did not elicit any response at the time of going to press. Sebi introduced the Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) in 2015. They introduced radical changes to the ITP and renamed it as the Innovators Growth Platform in December 2019. IGP is a trading platform introduced by Sebi for new-age technology companies and startups. The revamp came after the ITP failed to gain much traction. Interestingly, it was touted as India’s answer to Nasdaq at the time of being floated as Sebi recognised the need for startups having an exclusive platform, hence the comparison emerged with that of Nasdaq in the United States, which boasts new-age technology companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Google and the likes. The purpose was originally to ensure a separate dedicated platform be provided for new-age technology companies.