Celesta Capital Offloads Stake In ideaForge In INR 27 Cr Bulk Deal

Venture capital firm Celesta Capital on Tuesday (June 18) offloaded 3.57 Lakh shares of drone manufacturer IdeaForge in a block deal for INR 27.46 Cr. 

As per NSE data, the VC firm sold 3,57,600 shares at INR 768.08 apiece. Shares of ideaForge ended Tuesday’s session 6.7% higher at INR 830.85 on the BSE. 

In addition, the drone manufacturer also saw investors such as Aakraya Research, QE Securities, NK Securities, among others, execute bulk deals worth INR 136.3 Cr. 

The shares that flooded the market were lapped up by Graviton Research, QE Securities, HRTI Private Limited, among others. 

Founded in 2007 by Ankit Mehta, Ashish Bhat, Rahul Singh, and Vipul Joshi, ideaForge is a drone manufacturing startup that makes UAV systems for inspection, surveillance and mapping. 

The startup listed on the bourses in June 2023. Its IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth INR 240 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of 48.7 Lakh shares.

The bulk deals come a month after the drone maker reported its financial numbers. The startup’s net profit declined 30% sequentially to INR 10.3 Cr in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). It had reported a net loss of INR 5.4 Cr in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, operating revenue jumped 12.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to INR 102.3 Cr in the period under review. 

Last week, the startup also expanded the pool size of its employee stock option plan (ESOP) by allocating 1,678 ESOPs to its employees.

The bulk deals also come at a time when a number of listed Indian new-age tech companies are seeing such deals. Last week, UK-based hedge fund Marshall Wace offloaded 5.85 Lakh shares of fintech major Paytm in an INR 25.08 Cr deal. 

On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs and Marshall Wace together offloaded Paytm shares worth INR 208.35 Cr in multiple block deals. 

Earlier this month, Fireside Ventures and Sofina also sold their stakes in D2C unicorn Mamaearth in multiple block deals worth nearly INR 291 Cr. In May, insurtech major PB Fintech’s chairman and CEO Yashish Dahiya and vice chairman Alok Bansal together sold 83.7 Lakh shares in the company via open market transactions for INR 1,109 Cr.