Info Edge

“So, actually, if you're telling me policy will succeed because of us, that's not true. They were going to succeed anyway, yeah. We are fortunate we went in. Likewise for Zomato.”

“Different insurance companies will price the same risk differently because their risk assessment models are different. And it's not as if their strategy is to undercut price. They believe this is a lower risk and therefore they'll charge a lower premium.”

“It was a big, it was about eight, nine percent of our treasury. Entire treasury. We didn't have a fund, right? We just had a balance sheet.”

“Ha, it was a large check for us in 2008. But in 2008 was a large check for us. We, on a PowerPoint or even pre-PowerPoint.”

“I think as we were raising capital he always advised raise less.”

“Decision to hold, decision to sell, decision to invest more a lot of that thinking has been led by Kitty. So I would not overrule Kitty on anything policy without discussing it. I can't recall the last time I overruled anything.”

“We don't have networks in Silicon Valley, for example. We're not even trying to get them. It's not our strength. It probably will not become our strength also because we're not trying.”

“The secret of early stage investing is actually to invest behind founders and teams and companies that are going to succeed anyway. Maybe we made two percent difference. But you've got to be humble enough, enough to recognize that.”

“There is no way we're going to exercise a veto on the board, even though we have the right to do it as per the agreement, because, you know, ultimately you have to let it be the founder's call. See, unless there's something that's blatantly wrong or illegal yo…”

“InfoAge actually sold shares worth 133 crores, right? And it did sell. And they sold almost 30% of what they had at that time. And then they came back and invested sixty million dollars.”

“See, jobs is strategic investment. The rest is a financial investment. But they hope we've stayed, I think, 17 years in Policy Bazaar, so it's more than just financial. It's not strategic because it's not a business. It's not allied to a business that we own a…”

“I think today for info edge, almost half its value lies in its investments.”

“Out of our pre IPO investors, only InfoEdge and Temaseka left and Temaseka also sold half its stake, right? So actually the only one who's not sold their stake is InfoEdge, right?”

“Sanjeev Bhikchandani also has now what is called effectively permanent capital. Because he has the ability to say, I will raise money as an awkri and give you shares. Of Naukri. I will take that money and do something with it. If you don't like what I do with …”

“Look, we invested in Policy Bazaar in 2008. We are still shareholders. We invested in Zamaatwo in 2010. We are still there.”

“So in the first 10 years of being in Antrimana from 1990 to 2000 I didn't take a salary for approximately six years, right?”

“We had to make do with what we'd raised, which was 7.3 crores, which was 1.7 million dollars then, exchange it was 40 rupees that time.”

“So, I recall there was a point in time when we, the sales collections every month was 25% of our salary bill. In other words, salary build was Forex of our sales collections, and we had some 16 months of money left.”

“We were 84 CR in March. We are ending March 2000 six. We went public in October. And in March, 2007, we did one 47 CR.”

“And to do that you your best independence from venture capital and p agreements is profits is profit and is going public because when you go public all vcp agreements fall away”

“We also had scarcity premium. We were the only internet company out of India going public.”

“However, the bankers told us, if you put these reasons, you will never get your SEBI permission. You gotta put five standard reasons.”

“Between 2007, when we had our first investment. To 2012, in five years, we had more than 200 crores invested.”

“So we finally agreed in, in the board, I agreed that we will not do any more new companies for a while. We could support the old companies if needed, but we won't do new companies.”

“Knockly sales growth, buildings growth in April, June, 2000, 20, was -44%.”

“Since then, we've got a total of four funds. Total commitment for twenty-five million. Half from Temasek and half from Profits of InfoEdge. From InfoEdge.”

“So the company currently has got about three, eight, 3405 hundred crores, 3400 crores, I think, of cash in the books.”

“Six years from our series A, first round. And series A was the only round we ever had.”

“So really you had to sort of, with meager capital, somehow try and build a business, which means that you have to build on customer money. So this kind of frugality in fiscal discipline got ingrained in our system for the first 10 years.”

“Post 2004, five, we have always had a lot of cash on our books, on our balance sheet, in our bank. More than most investors, analysts will say is required.”

“We were actually solo for the first four rounds. Not first, first four rounds. Fifth round when Sequoia came in.”

“We invested 20 crores on a PowerPoint. Before the product was launched, and therefore, it was a big sum of money for us.”

“It's 12 plus two years. So it's a 14 year fund. I mean, 12 plus two. So you can end up with a 14 year fund. Which gives you a very long holding period, which means, you know, you can afford to be very patient.”

“We have exited Zomato a bit. When Ant Financial came in, because Ant said we want a secondary. A little bit. We're supporting the company. Likewise, in Policy Bazaar, we exited a bit. Early on.”

“There was a conversation at the InfoEdge board level that InfoEdge did not have the bandwidth to build all companies or verticals internally, and there were some very exciting entrepreneurs, very passionate people chasing great opportunities out there in the t…”

“The reason it also looks way more diverse is because we don't invest in competition once we've invested in a company. And we are, we hold that very, very strongly irrespective of how that company is performing. That till we hold shares in one founder, We do no…”

“So first check sizes are fairly flexible and depends on the fund requirement of the company, but the stage, ah, we are a little more particular about the stage that we try to be the first institutional investor in, ah, typically amongst the first who are in. S…”

“This was between 2000 and 12 to 2015 mid where we did not make any new investments. Because the environment at that time just seemed really euphoric to us, and so we have the liberty to slow down the pace of investment since we invest from the balance sheet an…”

“But right now, as of now, we are doing about five to six deals a year, new, new investments a year, but we are very large on follow-ons with existing companies.”

“So the ten million round that has recently happened, we've done two thirds of that round and one third has come from other existing and new investors.”

“Because if you look at the current portfolio, only in one company we have over 50% stake out of that, out, all the others are minority investments, and the first shareholding that we look for when we enter is typically between 15 to 25%, which is extremely reg…”

“For example, we've been now invested for 10 plus years in Policy Bazaar, 10 plus years in Zomato 10 plus years in Merit Nation.”

“So we did, we took an early bet in a fashion e-commerce, one of those flash sales companies, which did not work for us because a lot of capital flooded the sector immediately after we invested and unit economics did not work.”

“B to B marketplaces, we've actually done quite a few because if you look at Shopki Rana, Shoe Connect, Wishbook, these have all been B to B marketplaces, right? So we have a very robust view on the sector and we are extremely bullish about it.”

“500 startups, roughly, we evaluate in a year. That's what the traditional kind of metrics show us, and we end up investing in five or six.”

“So Sanjeev gets roped in because he spends about 70, 75% of his time on the investment activity.”

“Content based startups, you know, we've not really invested in any because we just find the monetization angle a bit difficult to get our heads around.”

“What we are really actively looking for is companies which can bring these trends together, right? Whether it is through a commerce angle, whether it is through other engagement angles, or providing newer products or services to consumers which they did not kn…”

“So I would say the ones who are lucky enough, because luck also plays a big role, we believe, ah, for all these factors to come together, they grow, end up growing 5000 X, and the ones that are slightly unlucky or, you know, just wrong time, wrong place, at ti…”

“When things are not going as well as imagined, then any kind of restructuring of cap tables or anything that we need to do in order to give the entrepreneur a fresh lease of life or give them another chance with raising money and all of that. We are fairly acc…”

“For example, with the two million dollars we put in they grew about six to seven X in six months on the base end, which we put that, right, which is phenomenal and similar kind of growth trajectory going forward.”

“And again, even those guys in 18 months since we've invested, they've grown about 16 times.”

“So Shoe Connect, we've invested 12 crores over a span of 18 months, but that's been sort of, you know, the first check was three crores, then there was another three crores, now there's six crores, and there's more going in, which we haven't announced yet. So …”

“Overall, we think it's a market that is very attractive. Finding you know, kind of a market size you know, think that can be a bit challenging for conventional VC investors, we think, because each of these companies can probably scale to a certain point, and t…”