Quest Global plans to go public in India within the next 12 to 18 months, its co-founder and CEO, Ajit Prabhu, told Reuters.
The Carlyle-backed engineering services company is betting on rising demand from energy and defence clients to drive its next phase of growth.
At the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum in Mumbai, Prabhu said the company aims to capitalise on growing investor interest in India’s engineering and R&D sector. This is the first time Quest Global has publicly confirmed its IPO plans.
The company has not yet decided how the IPO will be structured. According to Reuters, it could include a fresh share issue, a sale by existing investors, or a mix of both.
Shifting back to India
Quest Global, headquartered in Singapore but in the process of shifting its base back to India through a reverse flip, focuses on engineering services rather than traditional IT outsourcing. It works on hardware-related software and complex engineering projects across sectors such as aerospace, automotive, energy, and defence.
Prabhu believes the energy sector will be a major growth driver. “The energy sector is going to grow quite a bit because all the data centres have to be powered by energy,” he told Reuters.
Prabhu described the coming decade as a major opportunity for engineering-led innovation. “The next five to ten years, in my opinion, are like a time for engineering renaissance,” he told Reuters. He added that industries are increasingly bringing together chips, telecom, internet, and AI technologies.
Backed by private equity firm Carlyle, Quest Global is positioning itself as a key player in this hardware-focused technology shift. If market conditions remain stable, its planned IPO could become one of the notable Indian tech listings next year.
