Kitty Agarwal explains how Info Edge supports portfolio founders through difficult periods.
Insight
Agarwal: Outsized startup growth is heavily driven by luck and timing
“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…”
Opinion
Agarwal: Indian edtech market size poses challenges for traditional VC returns
“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…”
Disclosure
Agarwal: Info Edge refuses to back competitors of portfolio companies
“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…”
Disclosure
Agarwal: Info Edge holds a majority stake in only one portfolio startup
“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…”
Disclosure
Agarwal: Info Edge flash-sales investment failed as capital flooded the sector
“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.”
Disclosure
Agarwal: Info Edge avoids pure content startups over monetization challenges
“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.”