Anchor Investors

Anchor investors are SEBI-registered qualified institutional buyers (QIBs)—such as mutual funds, insurance companies, FPIs, and sovereign wealth funds—who are allotted shares in an IPO one day before the public issue opens, at a price that cannot be lower than the IPO's final offer price. Their participation signals institutional confidence in the issue, serving as a quality endorsement for retail and non-institutional investors evaluating the offering. In exchange, anchor investors are subject to a lock-in period—50% of their allotted shares are locked in for 30 days and the remaining 50% for 90 days. The list of anchor investors is publicly disclosed and closely scrutinised as part of IPO analysis in India.