The capital market is a part of the financial system that represents a set of institutions, financial instruments, individuals, rules and techniques that enable the transfer of funds from entities with a surplus to entities with a shortage of funds, which is its main role. The purpose of the paper is to present the characteristics of the capital market, equity securities and stock exchanges where they are traded. The aim of the paper is to analyze their contribution to the development of the domestic capital market, using the example of several Croatian companies that decided to raise capital through the process of initial public offering of shares (IPO) on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. It was concluded that the biggest contribution to the development of the capital market is made by companies that, in addition to institutional investors, also included citizens in the IPO. The shares of such companies are more actively traded, which results in greater liquidity of the shares on the secondary capital market, and thus shows a more realistic market value of the companies.