Recode Studios IPO: India's Beauty Market Gets Its Newest Listed Brand

India’s beauty and personal care sector has a new publicly listed player. Recode Studios, a Ludhiana-based omnichannel cosmetics brand, opened its SME IPO for subscription on May 5, 2026 — and the market’s response has been telling. As of May 9, the grey market premium on Recode Studios stood at Rs. 44 per share, implying an expected listing price of around Rs. 202 — a premium of approximately 27.85% over the upper price band of Rs. 158. For an SME issue in a category not historically associated with strong market sentiment, those numbers demand attention.

The Brand Behind the IPO

Recode Studios was founded by Dheeraj Bansal and Rahul Sachdeva, who started the Ludhiana-based affordable cosmetics company in 2018 and formally incorporated it in June 2021. The brand operates across makeup, skincare, body care, and beauty accessories — focusing on great branding, quality sourcing, and distribution across India through both digital and physical channels.

The company has over 350 SKUs and sells through company-owned stores, franchise outlets, its own digital platforms, and third-party marketplaces including Amazon, Nykaa, Myntra, and Flipkart. As of September 2025, it operated 24 stores across 14 states — three company-owned and 21 franchise outlets — a footprint that reflects the brand’s early but deliberate push into offline retail.

Issue Structure and Key Details

The total issue size is Rs. 44.6 crore, comprising a fresh issue of Rs. 39.6 crore and an offer for sale of Rs. 5 crore — meaning most of the proceeds flow toward business expansion rather than promoter exit. The IPO is priced in a band of Rs. 150 to Rs. 158 per share with a lot size of 800 shares. The minimum retail investment at the upper price band is Rs. 2,52,800 for two lots.

At the upper end of the price band, the company commands a post-issue market capitalisation of Rs. 168.18 crore. Recode Studios raised Rs. 12.7 crore from anchor investors on May 4, ahead of the public issue opening. The listing on the BSE SME platform is scheduled for May 12, 2026.

Subscription Response

The IPO saw healthy initial demand, with total subscription standing at 3.67x on Day 1 — retail subscription at 3.93x, QIB at 3.51x, and NII at 3.36x. That level of broad-based participation across all investor categories from Day 1 is a meaningful signal for an SME issue, where institutional and HNI investors typically hold back until the final day.

Consumer brand IPOs often appeal to investors looking for scalable, asset-light businesses with strong branding potential — and Recode appears to be benefiting from exactly that sentiment.

Financial Performance: The Numbers That Matter

The financial trajectory is arguably the most compelling part of the Recode story. In FY25, the company made a net profit of Rs. 3.3 crore on Rs. 47.9 crore in revenue. In the first nine months of FY26 alone, profit jumped to approximately Rs. 9 crore — a near three-fold increase on a nine-month basis, reflecting meaningful operating leverage as the brand scales its distribution.

For a four-year-old beauty brand operating in the value segment with an omnichannel model, that kind of profitability acceleration is what typically draws investor conviction at the SME stage.

How the IPO Proceeds Will Be Used

The IPO proceeds will be used to strengthen working capital and fund the establishment of a new warehouse facility in Ludhiana — an investment that directly supports faster fulfilment, better inventory management, and the ability to scale offline distribution without the supply chain bottlenecks that constrain many growing retail brands. The remainder will go toward marketing, brand building, and general corporate purposes.

What Recode’s IPO Signals for India’s Beauty Industry

Recode Studios’ market debut matters beyond the numbers. It is one of the first value-positioned, omnichannel cosmetics brands from outside India’s major metros to reach the public markets — and its reception reflects how seriously investors are now taking India’s mid-market beauty opportunity.

The brand’s franchise-led offline expansion model, paired with strong marketplace presence across every major platform, gives it a distribution reach that most D2C-only brands struggle to achieve. The combination of physical retail depth and digital commerce agility is increasingly what separates beauty brands that plateau from those that scale.

The issue’s structure — with most proceeds directed toward expansion rather than promoter exit — and the strong Day 1 subscription across retail, QIB, and NII categories together suggest the market sees a credible growth story ahead.

India’s beauty sector is maturing. Brands that were built in the D2C era are beginning to raise institutional capital, list publicly, and build the infrastructure needed to compete at national scale. Recode Studios’ IPO is a marker of that maturity — and a signal that India’s beauty market is entering a phase where operational discipline and omnichannel execution are being rewarded with genuine investor confidence.