Celesta Capital has sold its stake in ideaForge through a bulk deal valued at INR 27 crore.

On Tuesday, June 18, venture capital firm Celesta Capital sold 3.57 lakh shares of drone manufacturer Idea Forge in a block deal for INR 27.46 crore. According to NSE data, the firm sold 3,57,600 shares at INR 768.08 each. IdeaForge's shares ended Tuesday's trading session 6.7% higher, closing at INR 830.85 on the BSE. Additionally, investors such as Aakraya Research, QE Securities, and NK Securities executed bulk deals worth INR 136.3 crore. The influx of shares into the market was absorbed by buyers including Graviton Research, QE Securities, and HRTI Private Limited.

Idea Forge, founded in 2007 by Ankit Mehta,Ashish Bhat , Rahul Singh, and Vipul Joshi, is a startup specializing in drone manufacturing for inspection, surveillance, and mapping. The company went public in June 2023 with an IPO that included a fresh issue of shares worth INR 240 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 48.7 lakh shares.

These bulk deals occurred a month after IdeaForge reported its financial results, revealing a 30% sequential decline in net profit to INR 10.3 crore for the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), compared to a net loss of INR 5.4 crore in the same period the previous year. Meanwhile, operating revenue increased by 12.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to INR 102.3 crore during the reviewed period. The startup also recently expanded its employee stock option plan (ESOP) pool by allocating 1,678 ESOPs to its employees.

This activity comes amidst a trend of bulk deals involving listed Indian tech companies. Recently, UK-based hedge fund Marshall Wace sold 5.85 lakh shares of fintech company Paytm in a INR 25.08 crore deal, and on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs and Marshall Wace together sold Paytm shares worth INR 208.35 crore in multiple block deals. Earlier in the month, Fireside Ventures and Sofina divested their stakes in D2C unicorn Mamaearth through block deals totaling nearly INR 291 crore. In May, PB Fintech's chairman and CEO Yashish Dahiya, along with vice chairman Alok Bansal, sold 83.7 lakh shares in the company via open market transactions for INR 1,109 crore.