How to Apply for an IPO Through Zerodha

An Initial Public Offering (IPO) in India is the process by which a privately held company offers its shares to the public for the first time on a recognised stock exchange. For retail investors in India, the most widely used digital pathway to apply for a mainboard IPO or an SME IPO is through a stockbroker’s online platform, and Zerodha, the country’s largest broker by active client count, offers this service through its Kite trading platform (web and mobile app) and the legacy Zerodha Console back-office portal, using the UPI ASBA mechanism mandated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). This article provides an encyclopedic, end-to-end reference on how a retail individual investor can apply for an IPO through Zerodha, covering the regulatory framework, the step-by-step interface workflow, the underlying UPI mandate mechanics, basis of allotment, listing day behaviour, taxation, and the common errors that arise in practice. The treatment assumes Indian regulatory conditions current as of mid-2026, with explicit reference to SEBI’s T+3 listing regime that became mandatory on 1 December 2023 and the NPCI per-transaction limit revisions of September 2025.

Overview

Applying for an IPO in India is not the same as buying a listed share. The investor does not pay cash upfront; instead, the application amount is blocked in the applicant’s bank account through a SEBI-prescribed mechanism called Application Supported by Blocked Amount, abbreviated ASBA. For a retail individual investor (RII), defined under SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018 as a person who bids for specified securities of an aggregate value of not more than ₹2,00,000, the block is created by approving a one-time mandate over the Unified Payments Interface. When the company’s registrar to the issue finalises allotment, the blocked amount equivalent to the value of allotted shares is debited and the remainder is released; if no allotment is made, the entire blocked amount is released. Zerodha acts as a Self Certified Syndicate Member intermediary in this flow, providing the front-end where the investor enters a bid, and forwarding the bid to the exchange and the UPI mandate request to the investor’s Payment Service Provider bank. The end result on listing day, typically the third working day after issue closure, is that allotted shares appear in the investor’s demat account and become tradable on the BSE and NSE.

The Zerodha platform supports IPO applications only through UPI ASBA. It does not offer the older 3-in-1 bank ASBA route because Zerodha is not a banking company, and it does not offer any form of pre-apply, guaranteed allotment or grey market product because the allotment process is governed by SEBI and the registrar, not by the broker. The user-facing surface is the Bids → IPO section of the Kite mobile app on Android and iOS and of Kite web at kite.zerodha.com, with Zerodha Console at console.zerodha.com retained as a legacy back-office surface that some clients still encounter. The technical and regulatory subtleties of this flow, including why a UPI mandate occasionally fails, why a bid cannot exceed ₹5,00,000 in the retail category, and why allotment in oversubscribed retail tranches is decided by lottery rather than by application size, are detailed in the sections that follow.

History and regulatory evolution

The Indian IPO application process has undergone four distinct generations, each shaped by a SEBI intervention aimed at compressing the timeline between issue closure and listing while reducing the burden on the investor’s working capital.

Pre-2008 physical application era

Before 2008, applying for an IPO in India was a paper-based exercise. Investors collected a physical application form from a syndicate bank or the lead manager, filled in bid details, attached a cheque or demand draft for the full application amount, and submitted the package to a designated collection bank. The cheque was cleared whether or not the applicant received an allotment, with refunds disbursed by cheque or demand draft after the basis of allotment was finalised. The mechanism was inefficient: the investor’s funds left the bank account immediately on submission, refunds took up to a fortnight, and the listing cycle from bid close to listing ran to about three weeks. Reconciliation errors and delayed refunds were common grievances, particularly in heavily oversubscribed issues such as the Reliance Power IPO of January 2008 [1].

2008 onwards: ASBA introduction

SEBI introduced the ASBA mechanism by a circular dated 30 July 2008, with effect from public issues opening on or after 1 September 2008 [2]. Under ASBA, an applicant authorised a Self Certified Syndicate Bank (SCSB) to block, rather than debit, the application amount in the applicant’s own bank savings account. The blocked amount continued to earn savings interest, and only the portion corresponding to the value of allotted shares was eventually debited. Refunds for unsuccessful bids became instantaneous because no debit had occurred. ASBA was made the sole route for retail investors in book-built issues from 1 January 2016 by SEBI circular CIR/CFD/POLICYCELL/11/2015 dated 10 November 2015 [3]. By that date the cheque-and-refund cycle had effectively been retired from the mainboard primary market.

2018 to 2019: UPI for retail applicants

The next major shift came when the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operationalised the Unified Payments Interface to a level of stability suitable for capital-market use. SEBI, in circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2018/138 dated 1 November 2018, permitted UPI as an alternative payment mechanism within ASBA for retail individual investors applying through intermediaries such as stockbrokers and registered investment advisors [4]. The transition was implemented in three phases. Phase I, originally scheduled for 1 January 2019 and later extended to 30 June 2019, allowed UPI alongside the older physical-form-with-SCSB route; in Phase II, effective 1 July 2019 under circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2019/76 dated 28 June 2019, UPI became compulsory but the listing timeline was retained at T+6 working days [5]; Phase III, originally targeted for late 2019, was implemented after considerable testing and finally compressed the timeline to T+6 with UPI as the sole intermediary route for retail applicants. The result was that retail investors no longer needed to physically submit forms at a bank branch; the broker’s interface, combined with the investor’s UPI-enabled bank account, became the entire front end.

Modern hybrid: bank ASBA vs UPI ASBA via broker

The current regime, in force as of mid-2026, retains two parallel ASBA routes. The first, bank ASBA, allows any investor category to apply through the NetBanking portal of an SCSB, with the bank itself blocking the amount; this route is the only one available to Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) and to Non-Institutional Investors (NII / HNI) bidding above ₹5,00,000. The second, UPI ASBA via broker, is open to retail individual investors. Zerodha supports only the second route. With SEBI’s circular of 9 August 2023 reducing the listing timeline from T+6 to T+3 working days [6], a retail investor can today complete an IPO application in under five minutes and see allotted shares credited to demat within three working days of issue closure.

Regulatory framework

The IPO application process operates at the intersection of three regulatory regimes: securities regulation administered by SEBI, payments regulation administered by NPCI and the Reserve Bank of India, and the contractual rules imposed by the recognised stock exchanges.

SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018

The principal substantive law governing Indian IPOs is the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, commonly known as the ICDR Regulations or simply SEBI ICDR [7]. Notified on 11 September 2018 in supersession of the 2009 regulations of the same name, the ICDR codifies eligibility for an issuer to make a public issue, disclosure standards for the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) and the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), the categories of investors permitted to apply, the minimum and maximum allocations to each category, and the procedure for finalising the basis of allotment. Regulation 2(vv) of the ICDR defines a retail individual investor as a natural person, including a Hindu Undivided Family applying through its karta, who applies or bids for specified securities for a value of not more than ₹2,00,000. The threshold has been the subject of recurrent consultation; SEBI has on multiple occasions reaffirmed it as the binding ceiling for the retail category, even as the NPCI per-transaction limit for the underlying UPI mandate has grown.

Role of NPCI in the UPI ASBA flow

The NPCI, an umbrella organisation owned by a consortium of Indian banks and licensed by RBI under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, operates UPI as a real-time inter-bank payment rail. For IPO applications, NPCI’s AutoPay / mandate framework, sometimes called UPI 2.0, is used to create a one-time block on the applicant’s bank account against a specified amount and a specified expiry date. The standard UPI peer-to-peer transaction limit of ₹1,00,000 was, by NPCI circular dated 8 September 2025, raised to ₹5,00,000 per transaction for capital-market and insurance-premium use cases, with a daily cumulative cap of ₹10,00,000 [8]. This change took effect on 15 September 2025 and is the operative limit that governs how large a single retail IPO mandate can be on Zerodha. Earlier, NPCI had successively raised the IPO-specific cap from ₹1,00,000 to ₹2,00,000 (2019) and from ₹2,00,000 to ₹5,00,000 (December 2021), the latter being the change that aligned the UPI mandate ceiling with the SEBI retail upper bound for the first time.

Role of registrars

Every public issue in India appoints a Registrar to an Issue (RTI), a SEBI-registered Category I intermediary responsible for receiving the consolidated bid data from the exchanges, performing third-party verification of applicant PAN against demat and bank linkages, eliminating duplicate or invalid applications, finalising the basis of allotment, generating the allotment file, and instructing the depositories to credit shares to allottees. Two registrars dominate the Indian market: KFin Technologies Limited, formerly Karvy Fintech, and Link Intime India Private Limited [9]. Smaller issues, particularly SME IPOs, are also serviced by Bigshare Services, Cameo Corporate Services, and Maashitla Securities. The registrar publishes the Basis of Allotment document on its own website and on the websites of the lead managers and the exchanges, and it is also the entity that operates the public allotment-status check facility at sites such as ipostatus.kfintech.com and linkintime.co.in.

Investor categories

SEBI ICDR recognises four principal investor categories in a book-built mainboard IPO. Retail Individual Investors (RII) bid for not more than ₹2,00,000 and are allocated at least 35% of the issue in a non-100%-book-built offering [10]. Non-Institutional Investors (NII), also called HNIs, bid above ₹2,00,000 and receive at least 15% of the issue; under SEBI’s December 2021 reform, the NII bucket is split into a small NII sub-category (₹2,00,000 to ₹10,00,000) receiving one-third of the NII allocation and a big NII sub-category (above ₹10,00,000) receiving the remaining two-thirds. Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) receive up to 50% of the issue. Within the QIB allocation, an anchor investor tranche of up to 60% may be allotted to QIBs subscribing for a minimum of ₹10 crore (₹2 crore for SME IPOs) at a fixed price on the working day before public bid opening, with a 30-day lock-in on 50% and 90-day lock-in on the remainder [11]. Anchor investors must bid at a specific price, not at the cut-off, and their participation is publicly disclosed before the issue opens.

Eligibility and prerequisites for retail applicants

To apply for an IPO through Zerodha as a retail individual investor, an Indian resident must satisfy four prerequisites. First, a demat account is mandatory; Zerodha opens demat accounts with the Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL) and the Depository Participant name appears as Zerodha Broking Limited. Second, the demat must be linked to a Permanent Account Number (PAN), and the PAN must match the PAN registered on the bank account from which the UPI ID is mapped; the registrar performs this third-party verification and silently rejects mismatched applications. Third, the applicant must hold a UPI ID, often called a UPI Virtual Payment Address or VPA, that is mapped to a bank account in the applicant’s own name; UPI IDs of family members, businesses, or merchant categories cannot be used for IPO applications. Fourth, the bank that issues the UPI ID must be in NPCI’s list of Sponsor Banks and Issuer Banks eligible to handle UPI ASBA mandates, which as of 2026 covers nearly all major scheduled commercial banks and a growing list of small finance banks; the up-to-date list is published on the NPCI portal under the UPI for IPO section.

A Non-Resident Indian (NRI) cannot apply for an IPO through Zerodha’s UPI channel; NRIs must use bank ASBA through an NRO or NRE NetBanking facility because UPI mandates are not yet supported for non-resident accounts. Hindu Undivided Families, partnership firms, trusts, and bodies corporate cannot apply in the retail category and must use the NII bucket through bank ASBA. The Zerodha trading account must be fully active and KYC-compliant; a provisional account will not display the IPO option under Bids → IPO on Kite.

The Zerodha IPO platform

Zerodha’s IPO application functionality is delivered through a deliberately minimal user interface. The platform deliberately does not expose features that some competing brokers advertise as value adds, such as IPO recommendations, expected listing-day-gain calculators, or a pre-apply queue. SEBI’s intermediary obligations preclude a broker from offering allotment guarantees or trading tips on a current issue, and Zerodha’s product design reflects this restraint. As of mid-2026, Zerodha exposes three distinct surfaces through which a retail client can reach the same IPO module: Kite web, the Kite mobile app, and the legacy Console portal. Zerodha’s own support documentation routes IPO applications through Kite, and that is the surface on which the procedure section in this article is anchored; Console is documented separately as a fallback path.

Kite web at kite.zerodha.com

The primary surface for IPO bidding on Zerodha as of mid-2026 is the Kite trading platform at kite.zerodha.com [12]. The IPO module is reachable from the top navigation at Bids → IPO. The landing page lists currently open issues with the price band, issue dates, minimum lot size, the minimum application amount at the cut-off, and a link to the Red Herring Prospectus filed with SEBI. Each open issue exposes an Apply button that opens a bid entry form in a modal. Past applications and their statuses are accessible through the Bids → Order history sub-tab. The same Kite session can be used for placing live trading orders on listed securities, viewing the marketwatch, transferring funds, and downloading contract notes.

Kite mobile app on Android and iOS

The Zerodha Kite mobile app, downloadable from the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store, hosts the same IPO module under a Bids item in the bottom navigation. The mobile flow is optimised for one-handed use: each open issue is rendered as a card that opens a full-screen bid entry form, the investor-type and UPI ID fields are stacked vertically, and the final Submit control is a swipe action rather than a tap, intended as a deliberate-action guard against accidental submission. Both Kite web and Kite mobile transmit the bid to the exchange and the UPI mandate request to the sponsor bank in real time; the investor approves the resulting mandate in a separate UPI app (PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, BHIM, or the bank’s own mobile-banking app) within the cutoff time. Bid status, edit and withdraw options appear under Bids → Orders in the mobile app.

Console (legacy) at console.zerodha.com

Zerodha’s back-office portal Console at console.zerodha.com historically exposed the IPO module at Portfolio → IPO and is the surface most commonly referenced in pre-2025 third-party guides. Functionally, Console handles capital-gains statements, fund withdrawals, demat holdings reconciliation and tax filings, in contrast to the front-office trading terminal Kite. The IPO module on Console is no longer listed in Zerodha’s current IPO application support index, and new applicants are advised to use Kite as the canonical surface; the Console path is documented in this article for clients who still encounter it and for historical reference. Where the Kite procedure differs materially from the Console procedure (chiefly in navigation labels and the location of the bid-status tab), the differences are called out explicitly in the procedure section below.

Why Zerodha cannot offer pre-apply or guaranteed allotment

Some smaller brokers market a pre-apply feature that purports to queue a bid before the issue opens. Such claims are not supported by the market microstructure: allotment in an oversubscribed retail tranche is decided by random lottery rather than by time priority. Zerodha does not expose a pre-apply queue because it confers no allotment advantage; what some apps call pre-apply is a local queue on the app server that releases bids in bulk at issue open. Zerodha similarly does not, and cannot, offer guaranteed allotment; only the registrar, working from a SEBI-mandated algorithm, decides who gets shares.

Zerodha, like every other Indian broker, has experienced platform stress during certain high-volume IPOs. Investor commentary has noted UPI mandate timeouts and platform latency during the LIC IPO of May 2022 and the Tata Technologies IPO of November 2023. Such incidents are typically attributable to bottlenecks at the sponsor-bank UPI gateway, but manifest to the applicant as a delayed mandate or a Rejected by Investor Bank Due To Technical Error status. Zerodha’s terms of service for IPO applications disclaim liability for losses arising from third-party technical failures, in line with the SEBI master circular on intermediary liability.

Step-by-step procedure

Zerodha currently documents the IPO application flow on Kite web and the Kite mobile app, with Console retained as a legacy surface [12]. The canonical walk-through below is anchored on Kite web; a compact subsection lists the navigation differences on the Kite mobile app, and a second compact subsection covers the legacy Console path for clients who still encounter it. The walk-through assumes an open mainboard IPO with a price band of, say, ₹100 to ₹110 per share and a minimum lot size of 135 shares, yielding a minimum application amount of ₹14,850 at the upper band, well below the ₹2,00,000 retail ceiling.

Sign in to Kite

The applicant navigates to kite.zerodha.com and signs in using the Zerodha client ID and password, completing two-factor authentication using the time-based one-time password (TOTP) generated by an authenticator app or by the Kite mobile app’s Forgot 2FA recovery flow. The Kite dashboard loads with the marketwatch on the left and the funds, holdings and positions tiles on the right. New Zerodha clients should ensure that the demat account is active and that the bank account marked as primary in Account → Profile is the same account whose UPI ID will be used for the mandate, since the SEBI third-party verification check matches the PAN linked to that bank against the PAN on the demat.

Navigate to Bids, then IPO

Within Kite, the applicant clicks Bids in the top navigation and then selects IPO from the sub-navigation. The IPO landing page lists all open issues. Each listing displays the issue name, the price band, the bid opening and closing dates, the minimum lot size, the minimum application amount at the cut-off, and an Apply button. Closed issues that have moved to the allotment pending stage appear in a separate Order history tab, where the applicant can later check whether the bid resulted in an allotment.

Open the issue prospectus

Before clicking Apply, prudent practice is to review the Red Herring Prospectus, accessible through a link on the issue card or directly on the SEBI website at sebi.gov.in/filings/public-issues. The RHP discloses the company’s business, financials for the preceding three fiscal years, the risk factors, the objects of the issue (use of proceeds), the promoter holding pattern pre- and post-issue, the price band justification, and the lead managers’ assessment of the issue. The RHP is a legally binding document and is the primary source for any investor’s diligence; broker-generated summaries are not a substitute. Indian retail investors should also note the Abridged Prospectus, a shorter SEBI-prescribed digest of the RHP that is often easier to navigate.

Select investor type, bid quantity and price

Clicking Apply opens a bid entry form. The applicant first selects the investor type from a drop-down. The default is Individual (retail); per-issue, additional options for Shareholder, Employee, HUF or NII may also appear and are reserved for applicants who satisfy the relevant eligibility. The form then prompts for one to three bids, each consisting of a quantity (in multiples of the lot size) and a price (within the price band). Zerodha permits up to three bids per application, which allows the investor to bid at the cut-off price, at the upper band, and at any specified price within the band; the amount blocked through the UPI mandate is the highest of the three bid values. Bidding at the cut-off price is a common retail strategy because it instructs the registrar to accept whatever price the issue is finally priced at, eliminating the risk of being excluded if the issue is priced at the upper end of the band.

Submit bid and receive UPI mandate

The applicant then enters the UPI ID in the form username@bank (for example, 9876543210@ybl or rajesh@okaxis), ticks the SEBI undertaking checkbox confirming that the bid is not a duplicate and that the applicant satisfies the retail eligibility, and clicks Submit. Zerodha transmits the bid to the exchange and the mandate request to the sponsor bank; the bank, in turn, pushes a Collect request to the UPI app linked to the applicant’s UPI ID. According to Zerodha’s published support note, orders placed between 10 AM and 4:45 PM receive a mandate the same day, while orders placed after 4:45 PM receive a mandate the following day [12]. The applicant typically sees the bid on Kite with a status of Pending Mandate within thirty seconds of submission.

Approve mandate in UPI app

The mandate appears as a notification in the applicant’s UPI app, often labelled Block Funds for IPO or Mandate Request with the issuer name, the block amount, and a validity period. The applicant opens the UPI app, reviews the details, enters the four- or six-digit UPI PIN, and authorises the mandate. On successful authorisation, the bank blocks the amount in the savings account and returns an acknowledgement to the sponsor bank, which propagates to Zerodha; the bid status on Kite then changes from Pending Mandate to Mandate Accepted. Per Zerodha’s documentation, the mandate must be approved by 5 PM on the IPO closing day, failing which the bid is treated as unconfirmed and is rejected by the exchange. The blocked amount remains visible in the bank’s mobile app or NetBanking under a holds and earmarks section, although the regular available balance shows the post-block figure.

Edit, withdraw, or check status

Until the issue closing time on the last day of subscription (usually 5 PM IST, with the UPI mandate cutoff at 5 PM on the same day), the applicant can edit the bid (changing quantity or price within the band) or withdraw the bid entirely from Bids → IPO on Kite. Editing or withdrawing causes the existing mandate to be replaced by a fresh mandate that must be re-authorised in the UPI app; the prior block is released. Note that retail applicants on Zerodha may only withdraw or revise once or twice per issue under exchange rules. The current bid status is visible at Bids → Order history, with the possible states being Pending, Mandate Pending, Mandate Accepted, Modified, Withdrawn, and Rejected.

Wait for allotment

After the issue closes, the bid is forwarded by the exchange to the registrar for allotment finalisation. Under SEBI’s T+3 timeline mandated from 1 December 2023, the registrar finalises the basis of allotment on T+1 (the working day after issue closure), the exchanges issue the listing approval on T+2, and the shares list and start trading on T+3. The retail applicant’s role during this window is passive: there is nothing to do on Kite other than periodically check the bid status. On allotment day, the bid status updates to Allotted (with the number of shares allotted) or Not Allotted, and the bank account block is correspondingly debited or released.

Same procedure on the Kite mobile app

The Kite app on Android and iOS exposes the same IPO module under the Bids item in the bottom navigation. The end-to-end flow is identical at the protocol level but differs in interface particulars: navigation is touch-driven through a bottom-tab Bids item rather than a top-nav menu, each issue card opens a full-screen bid entry form rather than a modal, and the final Submit control is a swipe action rather than a click. Per Zerodha’s support documentation [12], the mobile procedure is:

1. Tap Bids in the bottom navigation.
2. Select the IPO from the ongoing list of IPOs and tap Apply.
3. Tap Apply again on the issue detail screen and enter the UPI ID.
4. Enter or edit the Quantity and the Price; multiple bids can be added through the Add bid control.
5. Tap the undertaking tick box and swipe the Submit button.
6. Accept the mandate on the UPI app.

Bid status, edit and withdraw options appear under Bids → Orders in the mobile app. The UPI mandate cutoff at 5 PM IST on the closing day applies equally to mobile-submitted bids. Push notifications, if enabled, surface the mandate status updates without the applicant having to refresh the Kite app.

Same procedure on Console (legacy)

Zerodha’s back-office portal Console at console.zerodha.com historically exposed the IPO module at Portfolio → IPO; this surface is still referenced in some pre-2025 third-party guides and Zerodha forum posts. Zerodha’s current support documentation routes IPO applications through Kite rather than Console, but the Console path may still resolve for some clients and is documented here for historical and fallback reference. The Console procedure is identical to the Kite web procedure above except for the navigation: the applicant signs in at console.zerodha.com, clicks Portfolio in the top navigation, selects IPO from the drop-down, and proceeds with the same Apply, bid entry, submit and mandate-approval steps. Past applications and bid status appear on Console under the Past Orders tab rather than under Bids → Order history. New applicants are advised to use Kite as the canonical surface to ensure consistency with Zerodha’s published documentation and support workflow.

UPI mandate mechanics

The UPI mandate is the technical and legal instrument that converts an IPO bid into a binding block on the applicant’s bank account. Understanding its mechanics demystifies the common failure modes.

One-time mandate model under UPI 2.0

UPI 2.0, launched by NPCI in August 2018, introduced the concept of a mandate alongside ordinary push-and-pull transfers. A UPI mandate is a future-dated authorisation under which the payer’s bank pre-authorises a debit up to a specified amount, on or before a specified expiry date, in favour of a specified beneficiary. For IPO purposes the mandate is one-time (not recurring), the beneficiary is the Sponsor Bank assigned to the issue by the lead manager, and the expiry date is set to the listing date plus one working day so that any debit or release can be settled. From an accounting standpoint the mandate is a hold on the savings account, not a debit; interest continues to accrue on the held balance, which is part of the original appeal of the ASBA structure.

Block-and-debit flow

On mandate authorisation, the issuer bank (the applicant’s own bank) places a lien on the specified amount, reducing the available balance though not the book balance. On allotment, the registrar instructs the Sponsor Bank to debit the issuer bank for the value of allotted shares; the lien on that portion is converted to an actual debit and the remainder of the lien is released. If no allotment is made, the entire lien is released without any debit. The applicant’s bank statement, depending on the bank, may show a single IPO debit line for allotted-share consideration and a separate lien released line, or in some banks a series of memo entries that net to the correct outcome.

₹5,00,000 retail mandate cap

The per-transaction cap on a UPI mandate for capital-market use cases is, as of mid-2026, ₹5,00,000, raised from ₹2,00,000 by an NPCI circular dated 8 September 2025 and effective from 15 September 2025 [8]. The daily cumulative limit is ₹10,00,000. This means that a retail applicant on Zerodha can place a bid of up to ₹5,00,000 through a single UPI mandate; however, SEBI’s ICDR definition of the retail category remains capped at ₹2,00,000. As a result, a bid between ₹2,00,000 and ₹5,00,000 is technically deliverable by UPI but is treated as a Non-Institutional Investor application by the registrar and is allocated from the NII bucket rather than the retail bucket. Zerodha’s UPI flow does not currently support such NII-via-UPI applications, so the practical retail ceiling on Zerodha is ₹2,00,000 minus one rupee.

Common bank-side delays

The principal failure modes of the UPI mandate are bank-side rather than broker-side. Mandate not received in the UPI app usually reflects a queue backlog at the sponsor bank or the issuer bank when traffic spikes; the standard remedy is to wait up to 30 minutes and refresh the UPI app. Mandate rejected may indicate that the UPI ID is mapped to a bank that has temporarily suspended IPO mandate support, or that the applicant’s bank account is under any form of regulatory freeze. Mandate accepted but block not visible in the bank statement usually reflects a propagation lag rather than a real failure, and resolves within a few hours. A particular caveat applies to applicants using small finance bank or payments bank UPI IDs: the eligibility for these banks to handle IPO mandates is reviewed periodically by NPCI, and an applicant whose UPI ID is hosted on a non-eligible bank will see immediate mandate rejection.

Allotment process

The allotment process is the procedure by which the registrar decides which applicants receive how many shares, given that demand in the retail tranche frequently exceeds the shares reserved for retail.

The 6-day, now 3-day, post-close timeline

Until 30 November 2023, the listing timeline was T+6 working days: T+0 (issue close), T+3 (basis of allotment), T+4 (credit to demat), T+5 (refund and listing notice), T+6 (listing and start of trading). SEBI compressed this to T+3 by circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 of 9 August 2023, applied voluntarily from 1 September 2023 and mandatorily from 1 December 2023 [6]. Under T+3, the registrar finalises allotment by 6 PM on T+1, the credit to demat occurs on T+2, and listing happens on T+3. The compression placed pressure on the registrar’s reconciliation systems and on bank-end UPI mandate release infrastructure, but has been substantially absorbed in the two years since the change.

Lot-wise vs proportionate allotment

In an undersubscribed or exactly subscribed retail tranche, every retail applicant receives the number of lots they applied for. In an oversubscribed retail tranche, SEBI’s minimum-application-size doctrine requires that allotment be made in the minimum lot across as many applicants as possible, with the remainder distributed by random lottery. If 1,000 retail lots are on offer and 2,500 retail applicants have each applied for one lot, the registrar randomly selects 1,000 winners and allocates one lot each. An applicant who applied for two lots is treated for lottery purposes as if applying for one lot, with the second lot allocated only if the issue has spare retail capacity. This has the egalitarian consequence that a small applicant has the same numeric chance of winning at least one lot as a large one. In the NII tranche, allotment is proportionate (pro-rata) to bid size, subject to a minimum-lot rule.

How the registrar generates the basis of allotment file

The registrar receives, by SFTP feed from the exchanges, the consolidated bid file containing every valid application with bidder PAN, demat ID, bank account, bid quantities and bid prices. A series of validation steps follows: PAN duplicate detection (one application per PAN per issue, except where SEBI permits multiple), PAN-bank-demat cross-verification, third-party UPI ID validation, and category classification. Invalid applications are eliminated. The registrar then computes the cut-off price (the price at which the cumulative bid quantity at or above the price first equals or exceeds the issue size), allocates the QIB and anchor tranches, performs the proportionate allotment for NII, and runs the lottery for retail. The resulting Basis of Allotment document is published as a PDF on the registrar’s portal and is sent to the exchanges for listing approval. Allottee-level data is uploaded to the registrar’s status check facility on the same day.

Where to check status

A retail applicant can check IPO allotment status through any of several channels. The registrar’s portal, ipostatus.kfintech.com for KFin-handled issues or linkintime.co.in for Link Intime issues, accepts the applicant’s PAN, application number, or demat ID. The BSE IPO portal at bseindia.com/investors/appli_check.aspx accepts the application number and PAN. The NSE IPO portal at nseindia.com offers a similar facility. Within Kite, the Order history tab under Bids → IPO reflects the allotment status as soon as Zerodha receives the file feed from the registrar, typically within an hour of public posting; clients still using Console will find the same data under Portfolio → IPO → Past Orders. Allotted shares appear in Holdings once the depository has processed the credit, usually one working day before listing.

Listing day mechanics

The listing of an IPO is a separate event from the allotment. It is the moment at which the newly listed equity becomes a tradable security on the secondary market, with its first price discovered through a special pre-open call auction.

Pre-open call auction

On listing day, trading in the new scrip is conducted through a special pre-open session operating from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, separate from the normal continuous trading session that begins at 9:15 AM for other listed scrips. During this hour, market participants enter buy and sell orders at any price; the exchange matching engine computes an equilibrium price at which the maximum number of shares can be exchanged, and at 10:00 AM all matched orders are settled at this equilibrium price. This equilibrium price is the listing price and becomes the reference for the regular continuous trading session that begins immediately after.

Indicative price discovery

The pre-open session is divided into an order entry and modification phase (9:00 AM to 9:45 AM), an order matching phase (9:45 AM to 9:55 AM) and a buffer phase (9:55 AM to 10:00 AM). During order entry, the exchange publishes an indicative equilibrium price every few seconds, which serves as a real-time barometer of how the listing is shaping up. From 9:45 AM no fresh orders can be entered, and from 9:55 AM the system is locked for matching; trades are confirmed at 10:00 AM.

First-day price band

Unlike subsequent trading sessions where standard exchange circuit filters of 5%, 10%, or 20% on previous close apply, the listing day applies a specific framework. For issues of issue size up to ₹250 crore, no normal circuit applies in the pre-open and a circuit of 5% applies in the regular session. For issues over ₹250 crore, the circuit is 20% in the regular session. The pre-open itself does not have a price band, since it is a price-discovery session. SEBI has separately imposed dynamic price band limits of typically 25% on each side, calibrated to the equilibrium price, to curb manipulative listing-day spikes.

Trade-to-trade settlement for new listings

For mainboard IPOs with issue size up to ₹250 crore, the listed scrip is placed in the Trade-to-Trade (T2T) segment for the first ten trading days. Under T2T, every buy and sell must result in a delivery, meaning intraday trading and short-term squaring off are not permitted; a buy must be settled by demat credit and a sell by demat debit. The mechanism is intended to prevent circular trading and manipulation in thin newly listed scrips. After ten trading days, the scrip is migrated to the regular rolling settlement (T+1 since 2023) segment. SME IPOs operate on different listing rules, with a separate SME platform on BSE (BSE SME) and NSE (NSE Emerge) and longer T2T retention.

After allotment: holding, selling, and taxation

The post-allotment lifecycle covers the credit of shares to demat, the optional sale on listing day, and the tax treatment of any resulting capital gain.

Demat credit timing

Under the T+3 regime, allotted shares are credited to the applicant’s demat account on T+2, the day before listing. The credit is visible in Kite under the Holdings tab (top navigation on Kite web, bottom navigation on the Kite mobile app) once CDSL has propagated the entry, and the same data is mirrored on Console under Portfolio → Holdings. The applicant receives an SMS and email from the depository confirming the credit. Until listing, the shares cannot be transferred or sold; they are merely a non-tradable holding. On T+3 morning, the holding becomes tradable on both BSE and NSE.

Selling on listing day

An applicant who chooses to sell on listing day enters a sell order in Kite during the pre-open session or the regular session. Sale during the pre-open contributes to the equilibrium-price formation; sale during the regular session executes at prevailing bid-offer prices. Because the scrip may be under T2T for the first ten days (for smaller issues), the sale must be a delivery sale, meaning the broker debits the shares from demat and credits the cash proceeds (net of brokerage and statutory charges) on T+1 of the trade. Zerodha’s brokerage on IPO sell is the standard equity-delivery brokerage of ₹20 or 0.03% per executed order, whichever is lower; statutory charges include Securities Transaction Tax (STT), exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover charges, stamp duty, and 18% GST on the brokerage and exchange charges.

Tax treatment

A sale of IPO-allotted shares on the listing day, or within the next twelve months, generates a short-term capital gain (STCG) under section 111A of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Following the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, the STCG rate on listed equity shares and equity-oriented mutual funds, on which STT has been paid, was raised from 15% to 20%, effective for transfers on or after 23 July 2024 [13]. The same amendment raised the long-term capital gain (LTCG) rate on the same class of assets from 10% to 12.5%, with the LTCG exemption limit raised from ₹1,00,000 to ₹1,25,000 per assessment year, applicable when the holding period exceeds twelve months. The cost of acquisition for an IPO-allotted share is the issue price, irrespective of where the share trades on listing day. For income-tax return purposes, capital gains from IPO sales are reported under Schedule CG in ITR-2 or ITR-3, with the grandfathering rule of 31 January 2018 inapplicable to IPOs listed after that date.

Common errors and troubleshooting

A non-trivial fraction of retail IPO applications fail not because the issue is oversubscribed but because of avoidable procedural errors. Zerodha’s support documentation and the registrar’s invalid-application logs identify a recurring set of issues.

Mandate not received

If the UPI mandate notification does not appear in the applicant’s UPI app within fifteen minutes of bid submission, the typical cause is a queue at the sponsor bank or a transient outage. Remedies in order of effort are: open the UPI app and pull-to-refresh the Pending Requests or Mandate section, log out and back in, switch to the bank’s own mobile-banking app where the same mandate is also discoverable, and finally raise a ticket with Zerodha if the mandate is still not visible thirty minutes after bid submission. The bid in Kite will show Mandate Pending; the bid is preserved until either the mandate arrives or the issue closes.

Mandate rejected

A mandate rejection with code U16 or ZD in the UPI app typically reflects a duplicate mandate, while U30 reflects an issuer-bank-side technical error. The Zerodha bid status will reflect Rejected by Investor Bank Due to Technical Error. Remedies are to wait fifteen minutes, withdraw the current bid from Bids → IPO on Kite, and re-submit with the same UPI ID; in stubborn cases a different UPI ID mapped to the same bank account (for example, switching from PhonePe to BHIM) often unblocks the flow. The applicant should not switch to a UPI ID mapped to a different bank, since the third-party verification matches the UPI-bank PAN against the demat PAN.

Bid not visible in Zerodha after submission

Occasionally a bid is accepted by Zerodha’s order management system but does not appear in the Portfolio → IPO → Orders table for several minutes. The cause is invariably a cache or feed delay; the bid is in fact submitted to the exchange. Refreshing the page after a few minutes resolves the display issue; a screenshot of the bid confirmation modal is good evidence to retain.

PAN-mismatch rejection

The most consequential silent failure is a PAN mismatch. The registrar’s third-party verification compares the PAN linked to the demat against the PAN linked to the bank account from which the UPI ID is drawn. If the two do not match (typically because the bank account is in a relative’s name, or the demat PAN has been recently changed and not updated with the bank, or the UPI ID is mapped to a joint account where the primary holder differs from the demat holder), the application is rejected by the registrar even though the bid was submitted, the mandate was approved, and the amount was blocked. The block is released on T+1 or T+2 with no allotment. There is no remedy after the fact; the only preventive measure is to ensure that the demat PAN and the bank-account PAN are identical and that the UPI ID is mapped to that bank account in the applicant’s own name.

UPI ID format issues

The UPI ID must be entered in lowercase, with no leading or trailing whitespace, in the format handle@bank. Common errors include entering the underlying mobile number rather than the UPI ID (the platform rejects this with a validation error), entering an outdated UPI ID after switching banks, and entering a merchant UPI ID issued for a business account. Zerodha’s form validates the format syntactically but not semantically; an outdated but syntactically valid UPI ID will pass form validation but the mandate request will silently fail at NPCI.

Bidding above the cap

A retail applicant who enters bid combinations resulting in a maximum blocked amount of ₹2,00,000 or more is, by definition, no longer a retail applicant. SEBI ICDR moves such an application into the NII category, where allotment is proportionate. Zerodha’s interface does not currently support NII-via-UPI applications because the UPI mandate cap, although raised to ₹5,00,000 by NPCI in September 2025, does not align with SEBI’s retail definition. Bids above ₹2,00,000 should therefore be made through bank ASBA via NetBanking and not through the broker UPI route.

Edge cases and notable scenarios

Beyond the standard flow, several special scenarios merit attention.

Oversubscription and lottery allotment

In a heavily oversubscribed retail tranche (subscription multiples of 10x or more are routine for high-profile mainboard issues), the lottery allotment means that the probability of allotment for any single applicant is approximately the inverse of the oversubscription multiple. For a 50x oversubscribed issue, roughly one in fifty retail applicants receives one lot; the rest receive nothing. There is no statistical advantage to applying for more than one lot in such an issue, because the lottery operates on the minimum-lot basis. Applying through multiple PANs of family members is a common workaround, but the family members must each be independent applicants with their own demat accounts and PAN-linked bank accounts; merely using a single applicant’s bank account to fund multiple applications constitutes a duplicate-application violation under SEBI ICDR and results in rejection of all linked applications.

IPO withdrawn or postponed

An issuer or lead manager may withdraw or postpone an IPO after the bid window has opened, although it is rare. The most common cause is dramatic adverse movement in the secondary market during the bid window, or a regulatory observation requiring re-disclosure in the RHP. SEBI permits withdrawal up to the listing day for certain procedural breaches. In a withdrawal, the registrar instructs the issuer banks to release all UPI mandate blocks within one working day, and the bid is simply void. Applicants do not need to take any action; the block is released automatically.

Issues priced above price band

Mainboard issues are strictly priced within the price band declared in the RHP. SME IPOs, governed by a separate chapter of ICDR, occasionally use a floor price model where the final issue price may be revised upward at the lead manager’s discretion, subject to disclosure. In such cases the applicant’s UPI mandate amount is computed at the upper-band-equivalent price; if the final price exceeds the bid price, the application is rejected for the relevant bid leg.

Multiple applications from one family

SEBI’s one application per PAN rule prohibits a single PAN from making more than one application in the same category in the same issue, but it does not prohibit different PANs in the same family from each making one application. Spouses, adult children, parents, and HUF entities each with their own PAN and demat may each apply. The applications must be funded from the respective applicant’s own bank account; SEBI surveillance pattern-matches duplicate funding sources, and a single bank account funding multiple PAN applications triggers automated rejection of all such applications. Joint demat accounts are treated as belonging to the first holder; only the first holder’s PAN is considered for allotment.

Comparison with other application channels

Although Zerodha is the dominant retail broker, several other channels exist for IPO application, each with trade-offs.

Bank ASBA via NetBanking

Every Self Certified Syndicate Bank, which includes substantially all scheduled commercial banks, offers an IPO application facility through its NetBanking portal. The flow involves logging into NetBanking, navigating to the Investments or ASBA section, selecting the open issue, entering the demat ID, depository, and DP name, entering the bid quantity and price, and submitting. The bank places the block directly without requiring a UPI mandate. This route is available to retail, NII, and QIB categories and is the only ASBA route open to bids above ₹5,00,000. Its drawbacks are interface variability across banks, slower form rendering, and the absence of a unified status tracker.

Other broker apps

Competitors to Zerodha include Groww, Upstox, Angel One, ICICI Direct, HDFC Securities, Kotak Securities, and 5paisa. All offer UPI ASBA flows broadly similar to Zerodha’s. Differentiators include interface polish, bundled research, and integrated NII support. Bank-owned brokers such as ICICI Direct and HDFC Securities offer 3-in-1 account integration linking broker, demat, and bank, allowing a non-UPI ASBA application from the same interface. As of 2026, Zerodha leads in active retail clients but Groww has overtaken it in primary-market application volume by some published estimates [14].

Legacy paper application forms

Physical IPO application forms collected from SCSB branches were formally retired for retail applicants on 1 July 2019 under Phase II of UPI ASBA. They remain notionally available for QIB and NII applicants in some issues but are vestigial; nearly all institutional applications now flow through electronic ASBA. The pre-2008 cheque-with-form mechanism has been fully extinct since 2016.

Tax implications

Capital gains arising from the sale of IPO-allotted shares are taxed under the Income-tax Act, 1961. A holding period of twelve months or less from the date of allotment classifies the gain as short-term, and a holding period exceeding twelve months classifies it as long-term. For listed equity shares on which STT has been paid, the rates effective from 23 July 2024 are 20% on STCG under section 111A and 12.5% on LTCG above ₹1,25,000 per year under section 112A. STT is levied at 0.025% on the sell side of equity-delivery transactions, including IPO sales on listing day. The cost of acquisition is the IPO issue price, irrespective of listing-day price. Reporting is done through the Schedule CG and Schedule 112A of ITR-2 or ITR-3, with allotment-wise detail required for LTCG sales. Detailed tax treatment, including grandfathering for pre-1 February 2018 holdings (inapplicable to IPOs allotted thereafter) and the interplay with Securities Transaction Tax, is covered in dedicated tax-focused reference articles linked at the end of this entry.

Frequently asked questions

Can a Zerodha client apply for an IPO without a demat account?

No. A demat account is mandatory for any IPO application in India, since allotted shares are credited only in dematerialised form. Opening a demat account through Zerodha typically takes one to three working days after submission of KYC documents.

What is the maximum amount a retail applicant can bid on Zerodha?

The retail category under SEBI ICDR is capped at a bid value of less than ₹2,00,000. Bids of ₹2,00,000 or more are classified as NII applications, and Zerodha’s UPI flow does not currently support NII applications. Investors who wish to bid in the NII category must use bank ASBA via NetBanking.

What happens to the blocked amount if there is no allotment?

If the applicant receives no allotment, the registrar instructs the bank to release the UPI mandate block in full, typically on T+1 or T+2 working days after the basis of allotment is finalised. The funds become available in the savings account immediately on release; the applicant earns savings interest on the held amount during the block period.

Is it possible to apply for the same IPO multiple times through Zerodha?

No. SEBI’s one application per PAN rule limits each PAN to a single application in a given issue and category. Multiple applications from the same PAN are automatically rejected by the registrar. Different family members may each apply, provided each application uses a unique PAN, a unique demat, and a unique bank account.

Why does Zerodha sometimes show the bid status as Mandate Pending for hours?

The status reflects the absence of an acknowledgement from the applicant’s bank that the UPI mandate has been authorised. The cause is usually a queue at the sponsor bank or issuer bank. The bid is preserved by the exchange; the applicant should refresh the UPI app and authorise the mandate. If the mandate is not visible in the UPI app, contact the bank’s UPI support line.

Can an investor cancel an IPO application after the mandate is approved?

Yes, until the issue closing time on the last day of bidding. Withdrawal is initiated from Kite under Bids → IPO (or, for clients on the legacy surface, from Console under Portfolio → IPO), which causes the underlying mandate to be cancelled and the bank account block to be released. After issue closure, withdrawal is no longer permitted; the bid is final.

When do allotted shares appear in the Zerodha demat?

Under the T+3 regime, shares are credited to demat on T+2, the working day before listing. The credit is visible on Kite under the Holdings tab and mirrored on Console under Portfolio → Holdings, once the depository (CDSL for Zerodha clients) has processed the entry, typically by the close of business on T+2.

Is grey market premium a reliable indicator of listing performance?

No. The grey market for IPOs is an unregulated, opaque, off-exchange market for IPO applications and is not recognised by SEBI. Grey-market premium figures published by various websites are speculative and have weak correlation with realised listing-day gains. SEBI has cautioned investors against relying on grey-market data as the basis for an application decision.

What is the cut-off price option and should it be used?

Cut-off price is a retail-only bidding option that authorises the registrar to deem the bid to be at whatever price is the final issue price determined at the close of book-building. Choosing the cut-off ensures that the bid is not eliminated for being below the final price, which is the most common cause of valid bids being rejected in heavily subscribed issues. The cut-off option is selectable in the Zerodha bid entry form.

Does applying through Zerodha increase the chance of allotment?

No. The allotment algorithm operated by the registrar is broker-agnostic and PAN-based. The choice of broker affects only the convenience of the bidding interface, not the probability of allotment.

What is the difference between mainboard IPO and SME IPO on Zerodha?

Zerodha supports application for both mainboard IPOs, listed on the main platforms of BSE and NSE, and SME IPOs, listed on BSE SME and NSE Emerge. The interface is the same. SME IPOs typically have a much higher minimum application size (often above ₹2,00,000), which places retail applicants in the NII category and prevents application through Zerodha’s UPI flow. As a result, retail Zerodha clients are practically limited to mainboard IPO applications.

What is the SEBI complaint mechanism if a UPI mandate is wrongly blocked or not released?

Investor grievances against any intermediary, including a broker, registrar, or sponsor bank, can be filed on the SCORES (SEBI Complaints Redress System) portal at scores.sebi.gov.in. Grievances are routed to the entity for resolution within a stipulated timeline, with SEBI escalation if the entity fails to respond.

Glossary

Anchor investor: A QIB investing at a fixed price one day before issue opening, with partial 30-day and 90-day lock-in.

ASBA: Application Supported by Blocked Amount; the SEBI-mandated mechanism for IPO application funding through a bank-account block rather than a debit.

Basis of Allotment: The registrar-published document describing the allotment methodology and outcome for a public issue.

BHIM: Bharat Interface for Money; an NPCI-operated reference UPI app.

Book building: The price-discovery process in which bids are collected within a price band and the final issue price is determined by demand.

CDSL: Central Depository Services Limited; one of two Indian depositories holding shares in dematerialised form. Zerodha’s DP.

Cut-off price: A retail bid option authorising the registrar to deem the bid to be at the final discovered price.

Demat account: A depository account holding securities in electronic form.

DRHP: Draft Red Herring Prospectus filed with SEBI before observations.

Lead manager: The merchant banker managing the IPO process for the issuer.

Lot size: The minimum number of shares an applicant must bid for in one lot.

NII: Non-Institutional Investor, also called HNI; bidder above ₹2,00,000.

NSDL: National Securities Depository Limited, the other Indian depository.

Price band: The range within which retail and institutional bids must be placed.

QIB: Qualified Institutional Buyer, comprising mutual funds, FPIs, insurance companies, and pension funds.

Registrar to an Issue: SEBI-registered intermediary handling allotment and post-allotment investor services.

RHP: Red Herring Prospectus, the final pre-issue offer document.

RII: Retail Individual Investor; bidder up to ₹2,00,000.

SCSB: Self Certified Syndicate Bank, an SEBI-listed bank authorised to handle ASBA.

UPI mandate: A future-dated authorisation for a bank-account block, used as the payment leg in retail UPI ASBA applications.

See also

• How to open a Zerodha account
• Difference between mainboard IPO and SME IPO
• How allotment works in oversubscribed IPOs
• Tax on listing day gains
• Reading a Red Herring Prospectus
• Bank ASBA via NetBanking step-by-step
• How UPI 2.0 mandates work
• SEBI ICDR Regulations summary
• Investor grievance redressal through SCORES
• Comparing Indian retail brokers

References

1. Reliance Power IPO refund delay grievances, Business Standard, February 2008.
2. SEBI Circular SEBI/CFD/DIL/DIP/31/2008/30/7 dated 30 July 2008, Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA): Introduction, SEBI press release dated 29 September 2008, https://www.sebi.gov.in/media/press-releases/sep-2008/pr-applications-supported-by-blocked-amount-asba-process-implemented-successfully_7400.html.
3. SEBI Circular CIR/CFD/POLICYCELL/11/2015 dated 10 November 2015, Streamlining the process of Public Issue under the ICDR Regulations, https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/nov-2015/streamlining-the-process-of-public-issue_31036.html.
4. SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2018/138 dated 1 November 2018, Streamlining the Process of Public Issue of Equity Shares and Convertibles, https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/nov-2018/streamlining-the-process-of-public-issue-of-equity-shares-and-convertibles_40911.html.
5. SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2019/76 dated 28 June 2019, Streamlining the Process of Public Issue of Equity Shares and Convertibles, Phase II Implementation, https://abcaus.in/sebi/public-issue-equity-shares-convertibles-implementation-phase-ii-upi-interface.html.
6. SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 dated 9 August 2023, Reduction of timeline for listing of shares in Public Issue from existing T+6 days to T+3 days, https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/aug-2023/reduction-of-timeline-for-listing-of-shares-in-public-issue-from-existing-t-6-days-to-t-3-days_75122.html.
7. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, notified 11 September 2018, https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/regulations/sep-2018/securities-and-exchange-board-of-india-issue-of-capital-and-disclosure-requirements-regulations-2018-_40328.html.
8. NPCI Circular dated 8 September 2025, Enhancement of UPI Per-Transaction Limits for Capital Markets and Insurance Premium Categories, effective 15 September 2025, NPCI press release, https://paytm.com/blog/news/upi-higher-transaction-limits-sep-2025/.
9. List of SEBI-registered Registrars to an Issue, SEBI Intermediaries Portal, https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebiweb/other/OtherAction.do?doRecognisedFpi=yes.
10. Regulation 6 of SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018, Allocation in Net Offer to Public, https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/regulations/sep-2018/securities-and-exchange-board-of-india-issue-of-capital-and-disclosure-requirements-regulations-2018-_40328.html.
11. Schedule XIII of SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018, Anchor Investor Allocation and Lock-in, SEBI ICDR Regulations 2018 as amended through 2024.
12. How to apply for IPOs and how to stay informed of new ones, Zerodha Support Portal, https://support.zerodha.com/category/trading-and-markets/ipo/ipo-application/articles/how-to-apply-for-ipos-and-how-to-stay-informed-of-new-ones.
13. Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, Section 50 (amending sections 111A and 112A of the Income-tax Act, 1961), effective 23 July 2024, https://www.business-standard.com/markets/news/budget-2024-hikes-ltcg-tax-rate-to-12-5-stcg-to-20-stt-on-f-o-also-up-124072300553_1.html.
14. Groww surpasses Zerodha in active client count and primary-market application volume, Mint, 2024, https://www.livemint.com/.
15. Apply for IPOs using UPI, Z-Connect by Zerodha, https://zerodha.com/z-connect/console/apply-for-ipos-using-upi.
16. IPO Listing, Chittorgarh.com primer, https://www.chittorgarh.com/book-chapter/ipo-listing/27/.
17. Reduction of timeline for listing of shares in Public Issue, NSDL operational circular, NSDL, 2023, https://nsdl.co.in/downloadables/pdf/2023-0107-Policy-SEBI_Circular_on_Reduction_of_timeline_for_listing_of_shares_in_Public_Issue_from_existing_T+6_days_to_T+3_days_(003).pdf.
18. Sebi extends phase 1 implementation of UPI for retail IPO investors, Business Today, 3 April 2019, https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/story/sebi-extends-phase-1-implementation-of-upi-for-retail-ipo-investors-184785-2019-04-03.
19. Streamlining the process of IPOs with UPI in ASBA and redressal of investor grievances, SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2021/2480/1/M dated 16 March 2021, https://www.sebi.gov.in/legal/circulars/mar-2021/streamlining-the-process-of-ipos-with-upi-in-asba-and-redressal-of-investors-grievances_49522.html.
20. FAQs on UPI in Public Issue Process, SEBI, July 2019, https://www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/commondocs/jul-2019/1564465350843_p.pdf.
21. IPOs to compulsorily have T+3 listing from today; funds to be unblocked earlier, Business Today, 1 December 2023, https://www.businesstoday.in/markets/ipo-corner/story/ipos-to-compulsorily-have-t3-listing-from-today-funds-to-unblocked-earlier-407856-2023-12-01.
22. Anchor Investors in IPOs: Role, Allotment and Lock-in, mStock by Mirae Asset, https://www.mstock.com/articles/anchor-investors-in-ipo.
23. Bubna, Amit and Prabhala, Nagpurnanand: Anchor Investors in IPOs, Indian School of Business working paper, https://w4.stern.nyu.edu/finance/docs/WP/2014/AnchorIPOs_BubnaPrabhala.pdf.

External links

• SEBI Public Issues filings portal, the official primary-source page for all live DRHPs and RHPs.
• NSE IPO Allotment Status, the National Stock Exchange’s current-issue and allotment-status portal.
• BSE IPO Allotment Check, the Bombay Stock Exchange application-status facility.
• NPCI UPI for IPO portal, the NPCI overview page documenting UPI use in public issues, the eligible bank list, and operational guidelines.
• KFin Technologies IPO Status, the registrar portal for KFin-handled issues.
• Link Intime IPO Status, the registrar portal for Link Intime-handled issues.
• Zerodha IPO support, Zerodha’s consolidated support documentation for IPO application, allotment, and post-listing operations.
• SCORES SEBI complaint portal, the official channel for investor grievance redressal involving brokers, registrars, and sponsor banks.

How this article was researched

This guide was assembled from primary sources rather than secondary commentary, because the IPO application process is a regulated workflow whose details change with each circular issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India and each version of the Unified Payments Interface specification issued by NPCI.

The principal regulatory references consulted were:

• SEBI master circular on Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements (ICDR), in its most recent consolidated version, which governs the public issue process.
• SEBI circular SEBI/HO/CFD/TPD1/CIR/P/2023/140 dated 9 August 2023 and the subsequent extension circular of 21 November 2023, which together reduced the listing timeline from T+6 to T+3 working days, voluntary from 1 September 2023 and mandatory from 1 December 2023.
• SEBI circulars introducing UPI as a payment mechanism in public issues (the original 2018 circular and the subsequent phased rollouts) together with the SEBI FAQ document on UPI in ASBA hosted on the investor education portal.
• The NPCI UPI procedural guidelines, particularly the provisions covering the per-transaction limit of five lakh rupees for UPI-ASBA IPO mandates raised by NPCI in December 2021.
• Zerodha’s official support article on placing IPO bids through Kite (web and mobile app), which is the operational reference for the broker-specific steps [12].

Two reviewers independently walked through the bid placement flow on Kite web, the Kite mobile app and a sponsor-bank UPI app to verify the screens and the timing described in the article, and cross-checked the legacy Console path for clients who still encounter it. Where rules and procedure agreed across all primary sources, they are stated without qualification. Where conventions vary between issues, between sponsor banks or between investor categories, the article calls that out explicitly.

The article is reviewed twice a year and on any material SEBI or NPCI rule change. It will be revisited when the listing timeline, the UPI mandate cap, the cut-off time or the investor category limits are amended, and the lastmod field will be updated to reflect each substantive revision.

This article is for educational purposes. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to subscribe to any specific public issue. For personal recommendations, consult a SEBI-registered investment advisor.