Three online platforms being brought under investigation are Altgraaf, Tap Invest and Stable Investments.
Details accessed from Tracxn show that Altgraaf is powered by AI Growth Private Limited which also runs Jiraaf, a popular but regulated fixed-income investment platform. It was founded in 2021 by Vineet Agrawal and Sourav Ghosh, who are the founders of Jiraaf. Tap Invest, founded in 2021, has raised around $2.3 million from a bunch of investors including QED Innovation Labs, Snow Leopard Capital and others. Stable Investments is a Mumbai-based firm founded in 2022. Kanishk Ranka, who has a degree from the University of California, Berkeley, is designated as its managing director.
Sebi observed that the disclosures made by Altgraaf show that the platform facilitated the sale of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) worth more than Rs 4,400 crore for 75 companies as of November 18. For Tap Invest the amount raised stood at Rs 400 crore for more than 100 companies in the same time frame. Sebi is investigating the exact amount raised through Stable Investments.
Sebi allows retail investors to invest in unlisted corporate bonds and NCDs but only through regulated entities that are registered as stock brokers in the debt segment under a recognised stock exchange. They are referred to as Online Bond Platform Providers or OBPPs. Sebi, during its routine investigations, found that these platforms were not registered under the specific licence norms.
The investigation revealed that the NCDs were first made available to these platforms via private placement and subsequently, these debentures were made available to the public. The investigation brought to light this circuitous route taken by the three businesses aimed at avoiding regulatory scrutiny.
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“These identified platforms by making available for sale to the public, securities that were privately placed, have, in effect, facilitated the public issue of such securities without complying with the norms applicable to such issues. These platforms cannot be allowed to get around the public issue norms by structuring such transactions as secondary sales,” observed Ashwani Bhatia, member of Sebi, who oversaw the investigation.Sebi has also taken note of the fact that these platforms were giving the impression to their customers that the entire process was following regulatory principles, which means that provisions of fraud under Sebi’s rules can be invoked against them.