The Ledger
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Bikhchandani: Early-stage investors contribute at most a two percent difference to success
“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.”
Bikhchandani: Info Edge will never exercise a board veto unless illegal
“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…”
Policybazaar and Zomato would have succeeded without Info Edge's backing
“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.”
Shenoy: Info Edge Possesses Permanent Capital Through Its Public Holding Company Structure
“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 …”
Info Edge's Venture Fund Is Structured With a 14-Year Fund Life
“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.”
Bikhchandani: IPOs and Profitability Grant Complete Independence From VC Agreements
“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”
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…”
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…”
Dahiya: Sanjeev Bikhchandani Always Advised Policybazaar to Raise Less Capital
“I think as we were raising capital he always advised raise less.”
Dahiya: Info Edge sold a 30% stake before later reinvesting $60 million
“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.”
Bikhchandani: Info Edge lacks Silicon Valley networks and refuses to build them
“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.”
Bikhchandani: Policybazaar's ₹20Cr seed check took 8-9% of Info Edge's treasury
“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.”
Dahiya: Almost Half Of Info Edge's Value Lies In Its Investments
“I think today for info edge, almost half its value lies in its investments.”
Info Edge Invested 20 Crore Rupees Into PolicyBazaar Before Product Launch
“We invested 20 crores on a PowerPoint. Before the product was launched, and therefore, it was a big sum of money for us.”
Bankers Warned SEBI Would Reject Info Edge's Non-Standard IPO Rationale
“However, the bankers told us, if you put these reasons, you will never get your SEBI permission. You gotta put five standard reasons.”
Info Edge and Temasek Committed $425M Across Four Venture Funds
“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.”
Info Edge Has Maintained Excess Cash Reserves Since 2004
“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.”
Capital Scarcity Forces Startups to Build Their Business on Customer Money
“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.”
Info Edge's Board Paused New Startup Investments Around 2012
“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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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…”
Agarwal: Info Edge accommodates cap table restructuring for struggling founders
“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…”
Bikhchandani: Info Edge wrote a massive 2008 check pre-PowerPoint
“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.”
Bikhchandani: Insurers price identical risks differently due to varied assessment models
“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.”
Bikhchandani: Kitty Agarwal leads Info Edge's Policybazaar decisions without board interference
“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.”
Bikhchandani: Info Edge considers its 17-year Policybazaar stake a financial holding
“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…”
Info Edge Is Policybazaar's Only Pre-IPO Investor That Did Not Sell Stake
“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?”
Info Edge Sold Early Partial Secondaries in Zomato and PolicyBazaar
“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.”
Info Edge Raised 7.3 Crore Rupees ($1.7M) Before the Dot-Com Crash
“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.”
Info Edge's Series A Was Its Only Funding Round Before Going Public
“Six years from our series A, first round. And series A was the only round we ever had.”
Info Edge Reached 84 Crore Revenue Before Its October 2006 IPO
“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.”
Info Edge's Post-Funding Salary Bill Reached 4x Monthly Sales Collections
“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.”
Info Edge Holds Approximately ₹3,400 Crore in Cash on Its Balance Sheet
“So the company currently has got about three, eight, 3405 hundred crores, 3400 crores, I think, of cash in the books.”
Naukri's Billings Dropped 44% During the Initial COVID-19 Quarter
“Knockly sales growth, buildings growth in April, June, 2000, 20, was -44%.”
Bikhchandani Did Not Draw a Salary for Six of His First Ten Years
“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?”
Info Edge Solo-Funded Zomato for Four Rounds Before Sequoia Capital Joined
“We were actually solo for the first four rounds. Not first, first four rounds. Fifth round when Sequoia came in.”
Info Edge Deployed Over 200 Crores Into Startups Between 2007 and 2012
“Between 2007, when we had our first investment. To 2012, in five years, we had more than 200 crores invested.”
Info Edge Benefited From a Scarcity Premium as India's Sole Internet IPO
“We also had scarcity premium. We were the only internet company out of India going public.”
Info Edge Remains Invested in PolicyBazaar and Zomato Since Their Early Rounds
“Look, we invested in Policy Bazaar in 2008. We are still shareholders. We invested in Zamaatwo in 2010. We are still there.”
Agarwal: Info Edge paused all new investments from 2012 to mid-2015
“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…”
Agarwal: Info Edge seeks startups uniting Jio data, video, and vernacular
“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…”
Agarwal: Info Edge is extremely bullish on B2B marketplaces
“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.”
Agarwal: ShoeKonnect grew 16x in 18 months post-investment
“And again, even those guys in 18 months since we've invested, they've grown about 16 times.”
Agarwal: Sanjeev Bikhchandani spends 70% to 75% of his time on investments
“So Sanjeev gets roped in because he spends about 70, 75% of his time on the investment activity.”