Mumbai, January 21, 2026: S45 today announced the formal launch of Asia’s first AI-enabled Investment Banking Platform, marking a fundamental shift in how Indian companies approach the IPO lifecycle. Built to modernise IPO execution across SME and Main Board markets, the platform introduces a unified, intelligence-led operating system that replaces fragmented workflows dominated by spreadsheets, email-led disclosures and manual investor demand tracking. By embedding automation, predictive analytics and governance frameworks directly into the capital-raising process, S45 aims to bring execution transparency, pricing discipline and operational certainty to an ecosystem that has historically operated on disjointed coordination models. The firm has been founded by Deepank Bhandari, Pankaj Harlalka, Aman Singh and Tushar Sharma.
While India’s IPO pipeline continues to strengthen in volume and sophistication, the structural backbone supporting issuers has remained largely unchanged. Processes spanning eligibility assessment, DRHP preparation, regulatory response handling, valuation modelling and investor feedback still rely heavily on siloed communication and static data systems, limiting real-time visibility and increasing execution risk. S45 addresses this structural inefficiency by integrating eligibility verification, disclosure governance, valuation intelligence and investor demand analytics into a single AI-powered platform, enabling issuers, CFOs and boards to gain end-to-end control over the IPO journey from readiness assessment through post-listing performance management.
Commenting on the launch, Deepank Bhandari, Co-Founder of S45, said, “India’s capital markets have scaled dramatically in terms of volume, valuation and investor participation, but the infrastructure powering IPO execution has remained structurally inadequate for a modern financial ecosystem. Issuers today still operate through fragmented workflows where disclosure cycles lack auditability, valuation logic is confined to static spreadsheet models, and investor demand is interpreted through unsystematic feedback loops. What S45 introduces is not merely digitisation, but a structural redefinition of how IPOs are governed, priced and executed.
Our platform functions as an integrated capital markets intelligence layer embedding predictive models, real-time data synchronisation, AI-driven validation frameworks and regulatory process mapping into the IPO lifecycle. This creates a transparent and measurable pathway from eligibility assessment to aftermarket performance, enabling issuers to move away from approximation towards precision. S45 shifts the IPO process from being reactive and legacy-driven to becoming proactive, data-validated and institutionally credible. This is a necessary evolution for an economy positioning itself as a global capital markets leader.”
The platform delivers comprehensive functionality across the IPO lifecycle, including AI-led IPO readiness scans, version-controlled DRHP and disclosure management, SEBI query lifecycle governance, valuation models linked to live sector comparables, cohort-based investor demand mapping, dynamic pricing scenario analysis, allocation intelligence and structured post-listing investor relations planning. This integrated approach enables issuers to reduce regulatory friction, accelerate decision-making and strengthen investor trust, while ensuring compliance consistency and governance alignment at every stage.
S45 also brings deep domain execution capability across Aerospace & Defence, Automotive, Chemicals, Consumer, Energy, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials, Technology, Agriculture, Education and Hospitality. The platform combines the expertise of investment bankers, capital market strategists, technologists and data engineers with a sophisticated understanding of India’s regulatory environment, positioning it as a next-generation infrastructure layer for the nation’s public market ecosystem.
By embedding transparency, intelligence and governance into IPO execution, S45 is redefining the standards for how Indian companies engage with public markets, transforming the IPO process into a structured strategic function rather than a fragmented operational exercise.
Since its pilot deployment, S45 has supported 26 IPOs across multiple sectors, facilitating capital raises of ₹1,120.8 crore and generating cumulative investor bids of ₹3,64,719 crore. These mandates have delivered peak demand of 325x versus supply, average subscription of 168.4x, an average listing gain of 43.1% and an average gain of 62.5% over issue price, with issuers recording a 47.1% average listing pop in the last twelve months alone. These outcomes underscore the platform’s ability to drive superior price discovery, improve investor confidence and enhance post-listing performance through data-led execution.