New Delhi, June 29 -- Until recently, you couldn't track it on your trading app. There were no real-time charts, no market-wide consensus. Yet, the stock was quietly doubling in value. We're talking about National Stock Exchange's (NSE) pre-IPO shares - the crown jewel of India's booming pre-IPO market.

The recent surge in NSE's share price in the pre-IPO market has reignited public interest in India's fast-evolving alternate investment ecosystem. But this is only the surface. What lies beneath is a deeper, complex and risky world of pre-IPO investing.

The Good

The last three calendar years have seen an aggregate of over 200 mainboard IPOs and over 530 SME IPOs in India. In anticipation of making listing-day gains, the majority of thes...