Murthy advises start-ups not to see IPOs as 'surrogate' for a funding round

Says that isn't a good thing as an IPO comes with great responsibilities; points to pressure from VCs as a reason for IPO move by companies

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) have somehow been regarded as a surrogate for the next round of financing by companies, N R Narayana Murthy said on Friday.

“I think that's not a good thing because an IPO comes with tremendous responsibilities,” said Murthy during a conversation with business journalist Shereen Bhan,  at the India Global Innovation Connect conference in Bengaluru. “I still remember before we went public, I sat down with Nandan (Nilekani), Kris (Gopalakrishnan) and everybody and said that ‘having an IPO brings (more) responsibilities. There are so many people who have very little money and they have put faith