About
Info Edge (India) Ltd
Info Edge (India) Ltd. is one of India's premier internet based business. The Company is primarily in the business of operating multiple internet based services through its various web portals and mobile applications. It currently operates in four service verticals such as, in recruitment solutions through its brands naukri.com, iimjobs.com, hirist.com, ambitionbox.com, bigshyft.com, jobhai.com; in real estate services through its brand 99acres.com; in matrimonial services through its brand jeevansaathi.com and in education services through its brand shiksha.com. It has a network of 79 offices located in 55 cities throughout India. It has made forays abroad into the Gulf market with the website www.naukrigulf.com and currently has offices Dubai, Bahrain, Riyadh, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
In the last decade, Info Edge has also expanded by investing in businesses that have been conceptualized and initially developed by separate entrepreneurial oriented management teams. Each of these businesses are managed externally with inputs from Info Edge. Essentially, these are part of an investment portfolio of the company. Some of these investee companies include zomato.com (online restaurant classifieds and food delivery business) and policybazaar.com (online insurance).
Info Edge India Ltd was incorporated on May 1, 1995 as Info Edge India Pvt Ltd and they went public on April 27, 2006. In March 1997, the internet portal naukri.com was launched and in December 1998, jeevansathi.com was launched.
In November 2000, the company acquired the business of Quadrangle division. In September 2004, the company acquired Jeevansathi Internet Services Pvt Ltd and they became the wholly owned subsidiary company. The internet portal 99acres.com was launched on September 15, 2005.
In July 2006, the company launched the internet portal naukrigulf.com and in July 2007, they launched the internet portal asknaukri.com. In August 2007, the company entered the domain of professional networking services by launching the internet portal brijj.com and in May 2008, they forayed into the online education by launching the internet portal shiksha.com.
During 2010-2011, the company invested in Nogle Technologies Pvt Ltd, Kinobeo Software Pvt Ltd, Ninety Nine Labels Pvt Ltd, Zomato.com etc. During 2011-2012, the company invested in Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd, Zomato Media Pvt Ltd, Happily Unmarried Marketing Pvt Ltd. The company also acquired the business of Tootstep consultancy private Ltd during the year under review. During 2012-2013, the company acquired Makesence Technologies Pvt Ltd. During the 2014-2015, the company gets RBI nod to raise FII investment limit. The company also made investment in Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd and also transfered Policybazar shareholding during the year under review.
In August 2015, the company made investment in Mint Bird Technologies Private Limited. The website, www.vacationlabs.com, is a web-based booking system for tour operators providing services such as processing bookings, collecting payments, sending confirmation emails, reminder emails, feedback requests, accounting, and more.
On 13 October 2015, Info Edge (India) announced that it has transferred its entire shareholding in Etechaces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited (Etechaces or Policybazaar to its wholly owned subsidiary MakeSense Technologies Limited (Makesense) for a total consideration of about Rs 101.30 crore. Makesense has entered into a definitive agreement with MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd. (MacRitchie), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek, an investment company based in Singapore, enabling MacRitchie to subscribe to the shares of Makesense to extent of 49.99% of its share capital (on a fully converted and diluted basis) for a total consideration of about Rs 134.10 crore. Out of the above funds, Makesense will invest an amount of about Rs 31.10 crore in Policybazaar and this is part of the fund raising undertaken by Policybazaar in March 2015, wherein funding from Makesense was subject to approval from FIPB. Funds aggregating to about Rs 101.30 crore would be used by Makesense to retire its payable to Info Edge (India). Consequent to the aforesaid transaction, Info Edge (India) will own 50.01% of MakeSense and Makesense will hold about 19.65% of Policybazaar.
On 30 January 2016, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, invested an additional amount of Rs 5 crore through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares in Happily Unmarried Marketing Private Limited, which is engaged in the business of sale of fun & creative products. It owns and operates the site www.happilyunmarried.com. Accordingly, the aggregate investment, including the above, is now Rs16.4 crore in Happily Unmarried Private Limited which translates to about 44% stake in the company on a fully converted and diluted basis.
On 22 November 2017, Info Edge (India) announced that pursuant to the acquisition of Cathero Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Runnr), an on-demand logistics and delivery company and other restructuring by Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd., Info Edge (India) along with its wholly owned subsidiary holds about 44.74% in Zomato on fully converted and diluted basis.
On 19 December 2017, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly owned subsidiary about Rs 12.50 crore in International Educational Gateway Private Ltd. (Univariety). The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 29.62% on fully converted and diluted basis. Univariety is engaged in the educational business of providing products and services and counseling to students, schools, colleges and educators.
The Board of Directors of Info Edge (India) at its meeting held on 1 February 2018 accorded its approval to allow divestment of 32,629 equity shares of Zomato Media Private Ltd. (Zomato), being 6.66% of the paid-up share capital of Zomato on fully converted and diluted basis, either directly or through its wholly owned subsidiary - Naukri Internet Services (NISL), as may be deemed fit in the best interests of the company, at a consideration of rupee equivalent of USD 50 million.
On 1 March 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly owned subsidiary about Rs 6.40 crore in Agstack Technologies Private Limited. (Gramophone). The aggregating shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 25% on fully converted and diluted basis. Gramophone is a technology enabled marketplace for enabling efficient farm management.
Info Edge (India) crossed the total income figure of Rs 1000 crore for the first time in Financial Year 2017-2018..On 19 April 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3 crore in Bizcrum lnfotech Private Ltd. (ShoeKonnect). The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 20% on fully converted and diluted basis. ShoeKonnect is a B2B marketplace that enables footwear brands, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to connect, communicate and transact with each other for conducting and expanding their business.
On 3 May 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3.43 crore in Rare Media Company Private Ltd. It is a follow up round of investment in Rare Media which is already an associate of the company. The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this investment, in the said entity would be 43.86% on fully converted and diluted basis. Rare Media is engaged in building the future of work using pioneering technology.
On 25 June 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that subject to requisite regulatory and other approvals, as may be applicable, including that of Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP), the company has entered into an agreement with SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Limited (Soft Bank), a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Vision Fund L.P., of which SoftBank Group Corp. is a limited partner, whereby Soft Bank has agreed to invest an amount equivalent to about USD 45 million for 49.99% stake (on a fully diluted basis) in Diphda Internet Services Ltd. (Diphda), a wholly owned-subsidiary of the company, for the time being. Info Edge (India) has also agreed to invest an amount equivalent to about USD 45 million in Diphda for 50.01% stake (on a fully diluted basis) and to jointly invest through Diphda, an amount equivalent to about USD 90 million in Etechaces Marketing & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Etechaces) for 8.93% stake (on a fully diluted basis post completion of fund raise exercise with other investors).
On 5 July 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has agreed to jointly invest with MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd. (MacRitchie), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, an amount of about Rs190.51 crore in Etechaces Marketing & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Etechaces) for 3.5% stake (subject to change consequent to completion of primary investment in Etechaces announced by the company on 25 June 2018) by purchasing the shares held by PI Opportunities Fund I (PIOF) through its subsidiary, MakeSense Technologies Ltd. Consequent to the aforesaid transaction, Info Edge (India) will own 50.01% of MakeSense and MakeSense will hold about 19.92% (including existing stake of 16.42%) of Etechaces on fully converted & diluted basis.
On 6 July 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3 crore in Ideacficks Infolabs Private Limited (Zippserv). The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 45.31% (subject to change pursuant to milestones agreed in the relevant Investment Agreement) on fully converted & diluted basis. Zippserv (www.zerv.corn) is an online platform which provides data-driven real estate intelligence to enable smart property purchase. The company's two flagship products are 'CleanProperties' and 'PricePoint'. CleanProperties provides instant access to land titles, conversion records, building approvals, liens and litigations for thousands of ongoing apartment projects. PricePoint's analytics engine tracks lakhs of recently registered sale transactions and gives granular actionable insights for buyers at a project level so that buyers get a leg up in negotiations.
In May 2019, the Company acquired share capital of iimjobs for an all-cash deal of Rs. 808 million.
During FY 2019-20, Company acquired Highorbit Careers Private Limited on May 27, 2019. It launched Category II SEBI-approved Alternate Investment Fund, called the Info Edge Venture Fund. Since its launch, it has made 7 investments in Qyuki, Dotpe, Fanclash, Truemeds, Ruskmedia, Bulbul and Firsthive.
In June 2021, Company acquired Bengaluru-based, Zwayam Digital Private Limited. In July 2021, It acquired Axilly Labs Private Limited (Doselect). It has made strategic investment in related and adjacent business in Terralytics Analysis Pvt. Ltd. and 4B Networks Pvt. Ltd.
During the year 2022, the Board of Directors of the Company, in its meeting held on November 10, 2020, had approved the Scheme
of Amalgamation between the Company (Transferee Company) and Highorbit Careers Private Limited (Transferor Company', the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Transferee Company with the appointed date being April 1, 2020. The Scheme was sanctioned by the Hon'ble NCLT vide its Order dated March 8, 2022 on which date, the Transferor Company stood dissolved.
During 2022, the Company through its wholly owned subsidiary, Allcheckdeals India Pvt. Ltd., acquired 62.52% stake in 4B Network Private Limited. It acquired 79.62% of Aisle Network Private Limited in Mar' 22.
During the year 2022-23, the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Startup Investments (Holding) Ltd. (SIHL) had acquired, 2,356 shares of Sunrise and consequently Sunrise became subsidiary of the Company. The Company acquired shares of Sploot Pvt. Ltd. and Sploot became an associate of the Company.
The Company during FY23 had added second scheme, IE Venture Fund Follow-on I (IEVF Follow-on Fund) to the IEVF and floated other two AIFs namely, Info Edge Capital (IEC) and Capital 2B (C2B). The Company launched MyKindaNaukri brand that highlights and reflects changing workplace and jobseeker needs. A solution was launched to help resale and rental brokers connect with owners for their supply needs.
Info Edge (India) Ltd
Chairman Speech
Dear Shareholders,
The last two years have witnessed unprecedented disruptions due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Lives, health and businesses across the world were affected.
As I write this letter, India has administered more than 2.03 Billion doses of
vaccination. Without a doubt, this has been one of India’s greatest healthcare
achievements and the Government’s judiciousness played a role in keeping morbidity
under tight control. While the various mutations of the virus will continue to affect
lives and businesses, I am optimistic that science will be able to considerably mute the
effects of the virus globally.
Consequently, economies across the globe are on their post-COVID-19 recovery path. This
is especially true for India. The Government of India’s latest estimate suggests that
real GDP growth has recovered well after a contraction of 6.6% in FY21 to grow by 8.7% in
FY22. If one were to look at the estimate by World Economic Outlook (WEO) published by
International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April 2022, India is expected to record the highest
GDP growth in FY22 compared to any other advanced or major emerging market economy,
including China.
Having said so, the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war cannot be overlooked. The
IMF has scaled down world economic growth for 2022 by 80 basis points to 3.6% and this
could reduce further if the war continues. While these negative economic trends are likely
to have a spill-over effect on India, we are on a strong recovery path and hope to recoup
from the after-e ects of the war soon enough.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN A POST COVID WORLD
The pandemic has led to major structural changes in the way we live and work, and in
the way we consume content. Businesses in every sector have transformed the way they
interact and do business with customers. To begin with, though office-based business
operations have resumed in recent times, there is a strong push for promoting
‘distributed management’ techniques. The rapidly emerging employee-centric
flexible, hybrid work model has significantly increased the adoption of IT tools among
companies.
These changes have led to an explosion in the adoption of modern technologies and
innovation, forcing businesses to rapidly adjust or face the threat of extinction. As the
adoption of Information Technology (IT) based applications increases, the adoption of
digitisation witnessed a quantum jump from what was earlier considered the natural rate of
growth. This burst of digitisation has led to certain key developments that have impacted
our business as well.
First, storing and managing data on cloud computing is gaining popularity since it is
more convenient for organisations than setting up large physical data warehouses. Today,
substantial portions of sensitive information are on the cloud.
Second, a digitally integrated working environment enabled by widespread network
integration and interfaces is supporting the remote work culture. Even day-to-day
activities, such as food procurement, groceries, education, health service and medication,
have witnessed much faster adoption of online means of execution, making internet-based
activities more integral to daily lives.
Third, and most importantly, in this significantly higher digitised economic
environment, there is a spurt in demand for people with a certain kind of IT-related
skills. In the process, there is a major
Businesses in every sector have transformed the way they interact and do business with
customers. To begin with, though office-based business operations have resumed in recent
times, there is a strong push for promoting ‘distributed management’ techniques.
The rapidly emerging employee centric flexible, hybrid work model has significantly
increased the adoption of IT tools among companies.
churn in human resources across the global IT industry. On the one side, there are new
job requirements and on the other, there is higher attrition in pursuit of better
opportunities. Fundamentally, today, a large skill-based supply gap is fast emerging in
the IT industry that has warranted higher activity in the recruitment and training space
– a trend that is expected to continue for a few years.
In fact, we are moving into an era when every company will have to be digital, and
every digital entity will operate with high reliance on data with the deployment of
effective artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
In fact, clearly, in the last two years, the penetration of IT has become far more
widespread globally and IT-based activities and value generation across economies are
expected to witness significantly higher levels of growth over the next five years.
Estimates by the IT research body, reportlinker.com, suggest that the market will reach
$13.8 Trillion in the year 2026 at a staggering CAGR of 10.3%. Within our core
job-placement business, too, emerging technologies are coming into play, which will
necessarily require commensurate skills and qualifications among the IT workforce for
effective adoption and deployment.
Simply put, COVID-19 has created an entirely new set of paradigms. And truth be told,
none of us could have confidently predicted the sheer pace of this change even three years
ago.
LEVERAGING INDIA’S IT POSITIONING
Today, India occupies a pivotal position in this digital ‘gold rush’.
Domestically, India is now one of the fastest-growing IT markets, after the US and China.
Moreover, India supports a large part of the global IT services industry, with onsite and
back-end operations.
Trends that augur well for our business:
• Storing and managing data on cloud computing
• A digitally integrated working environment
• Spurt in demand for people with IT-related skills We are moving into an era when
every company will have to be digital, and every digital entity will operate with high
reliance on data with the deployment of effective artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
In recent times, the Government of India has been pushing for rapid digitisation,
leading to increasing investments in the IT sector. In the Union Budget FY23, the
government has announced some major digital developments such as further digitisation in
banking, higher education, health sector, and government administration.
Clearly, there has already been a significant upswing in hiring activities in India
during FY22. In the initial phase, this was mostly IT-led hiring. However, during the last
quarter of FY22, non-IT hiring has also picked as non-IT companies are fast adopting
digitisation and building their internal IT teams.
These industry-wide trends are creating tectonic shifts in the human resource market.
As per our JobSpeak Index, hiring activity has shown a significant upswing since January
2022. In fact, as we get into FY23, a growth of 38% can be observed in the index (April
2022 versus April 2021). Several sets of market data suggest that the growth trend in IT
employment opportunities is expected to continue over the next few years. For instance,
despite the addition of a record 4.5 Lakh employees to the IT-based workforce in FY22, the
demand-supply gap is expected to widen even more. According to a recent report by
Nasscom-Zinnov, India is projected to face a shortage of 14-19 Lakh tech professionals by
2026. It is estimated that over the next five years, the country needs to add 52 Lakh IT
professionals to the current tech workforce in India of 47 Lakh employees, as of 2021.
Given such market dynamics, this higher growth trajectory in the talent and skill
acquisition market is expected to continue over the next few years.
According to a recent report by Nasscom-Zinnov, India is projected to face a shortage
of 14-19 Lakh tech professionals by year 2026. It is estimated that over the next five
years, the country needs to add 52 Lakh IT professionals to the current tech workforce in
India of 47 Lakh employees, as of 2021.
Info Edge’s core business – recruitment solutions – under the primary
brand ‘naukri. com’ witnessed an impressive performance in FY22. The business
segment is strong in terms of cash generation – operating cash flow more than doubled
from 4,919.01 Million in FY21 to
10,244.01 Million in FY22.
CORE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
Given this backdrop, Info Edge (India) Limited’s core business –
recruitment solutions – under the primary brand ‘naukri.com’
witnessed an impressive performance in FY22. The recruitment segment billings increased by
72.64% to 14,363.76 Million in FY22 while revenue grew by 44.21% to 11,542.16 Million. The
segment’s EBITDA was 6,798.49 Million in FY22 – representing an annual growth of
55.39%. Most importantly, the business segment is strong in terms of cash generation
– operating cash flow more than doubled from 4,919.01 Million in FY21 to 10,244.01
Million in FY22.
With this massive surge in demand for IT-related talent, Info Edge (India) Limited is
positioned very strongly in this space with the largest online database to service this
job market in India. The business is focused on leveraging its strength of database with a
significantly improved online experience and value-added offerings. Through the continuous
development and deployment of data management and analytical tools, we are able to provide
more effective and tailor-made solutions for the different stakeholders in the talent
acquisition market — both the job providers and the job seekers. In doing so, we now
have a renewed focus on providing increased value to our customers, which has started
translating into better monetisation of our products and offerings.
The Company has taken a conscious decision to increasingly service niche segments
within the recruitment space. Consequently, it is developing specialised brands in
addition to naukri.com, which enhance our offerings in the recruitment solutions space by
providing more tailor-made solutions for different customer segments. To enable this, the
Company has also made certain acquisitions, including iimjobs.com, India’s leading
recruitment platform for management professionals, and hirist.com, an exclusive
recruitment platform for premium technology talent. Both have been integrated within the
Info Edge (India) Limited’s structure and with focused strategy deployment, they have
witnessed good growth in online traction and revenue. The Company also has its own
Gulf-based offering called naukrigulf.com, which also witnessed a revival in growth,
thanks to a pick-up in hiring activities in the Middle East.
We now have a renewed focus on providing increased value to our customers, which has
started translating into better monetisation of our products and offerings.
These platforms are being supplemented by specialised offerings. A focused site for
blue-collared jobs called jobhai.com, which is at an early stage of development, gained
momentum during the year. For back-end support to the recruitment vertical, the Company
has also acquired zwayam.com, which is engaged in providing SaaS-based sourcing and
screening recruitment solutions and end-to-end recruitment solutions with con gurable
plug-and-play modules. In addition, there is the technical assessment platform,
doselect.com, which is being increasingly used by clients to access technical skills. We
are also actively developing ambitionbox. com as a trusted and transparent platform for
sharing helpful information with the entire job-seeking community. During the year, this
business has evolved and reached leadership levels in terms of tra c share in India. In
addition to these wholly owned businesses, we also have an investment in codingninjas.com,
which is essentially an upskilling platform.
Across all these platforms, we have been focusing on utilising technologies driven by
AI. Hyper automation driven by AI is ensuring greater streamlining of processes that
increase efficiency, accuracy and productivity. This is rapidly emerging as a driving
force behind widespread digital transformation across the global economy.
RECRUITMENT
Today, our recruitment vertical has a comprehensive suite of services that addresses
specific segments within a more widespread market. FY22 was a landmark year for setting up
this suite of services, which are, each, in distinct phases of development. Given our
comprehensive leadership position in traffic and the focused nature of our offerings, we
believe that we have moved to a new growth trajectory — one that we expect will
remain strong over the next few years.
EDUCATION
In the online education classifieds space, our offering - shiksha. com - is at an early
stage of development, undergoing a recalibration of its business strategy in line with
evolving
Our recruitment platforms are supplemented by multiple specialized offerings. A focused
site for blue collared jobs, jobhai.com. A SaaS based sourcing and screening recruitment
solutions - Zwayam. A technical assessment platform, doselect.com and ambitionbox.com, a
trusted and transparent platform for sharing recruiter feedbacks. market
opportunities. With this in view, we are working on streamlining the business and
enhancing its deliverables. To begin with, we have repositioned the business as a
‘complete student counselling platform’ that fulfils the aspirations of Indians
wanting to pursue higher education abroad as well as in India. We are actively investing
on the product front to create a complete offering, building stronger relations with
academia to enrich content on the site, using IT tools to best cull out information from
our database and make the data platform more robust, and reaching out to more users by
investing in developing the brand. This is a segment where the negative impact of COVID-19
was relatively low and the product has also developed well.
During the year, the ‘study abroad’ segment was redesigned as a complete
end-to-end solution that supports students right from the selection of an appropriate
foreign institute to securing a seat in it. This segment of the business performed well
and recorded robust growth.
On a relatively modest base, the overall business performed well in FY22 - billing and
revenue grew by 64.54% and 59.22% and stood at 964.83 Million and 906.92 Million,
respectively. It is important to note that rapid top-line growth was achieved with
extremely healthy cash flows – segment cash from operations more than tripled from
102.27 Million in FY21 to 330.83 Million in FY22.
REAL ESTATE
Despite cyclical swings during the pandemic, the Indian real estate sector has remained
largely resilient. It is now showing signs of revival, with improved growth projections
across segments primarily dealing with residential ownership and rentals. In fact,
activity in this space has witnessed a considerable uptick in the second half of FY22 and
we expect this growth to continue into FY23. In the prevailing market environment, there
is an increasing trend for more digitised activities in the sector, which is what we
intend to leverage further with 99acres.com, our offering in the real estate classifieds
business.
Amidst intense competition, the business continued to maintain a leadership position in
its market. We continued to improve the quality and nature of the content on sites to
better user experience and streamline and optimise our sales and service teams.
We are aware that competition is strong and we need to make investments to maintain our
leadership status. Consequently, even if short-term profits are under stress, we remain
committed to making investments in this space. Our focus lies on enhancing platform
experience, wider brand building and improving client delivery to remain the dominant
player in the industry. We are confident that as a longer-term economic revival takes
place, the real estate sector will bounce back and the 99acres.com platform will grow
well.
While real estate segment revenues grew 25.06% to 2,173.22 Million in FY22, segmental
EBITDA losses increased from 221.58 Million in FY21 to 782.14 Million in FY22. The Company
has acquired a 62.52% stake in 4B Network Private Limited with an investment of 1,860
Million. This venture is built on providing a tech platform to connect agents, brokers and
builders, on the one hand, and track and aggregate new home site visits and home loans on
the other, to make it easier for all participants in the market. Through this acquisition,
we intend to add value to our offering in the online real estate space.
MATRIMONY
We have been operating our online matrimonial segment through jeevansathi.com since
2004. Though we have succeeded in certain markets, in terms of overall scale, the business
remains smaller than the market leaders. It requires more widespread penetration to move
to the next round of growth. In the recent past, we have been the first movers in
introducing innovations such as online chats in the segment and significantly enhanced the
user experience on the platform. We are also moving into new geographies and communities
within India with a specialised product and communication focus.
We have also proactively undertaken a detailed review of the business and initiated the
process of deploying a substantially revamped strategic roadmap. This focuses extensively
on increasing tra c and activity on our site by making several offerings ‘free for
use’. We believe the increased tra c will lead to a network effect that will provide
a much larger market share, enabling it to become a business that operates at a more
sustainable scale of operations.
These free offerings were introduced in Q4 FY22 and may affect our billing and revenues
for the initial few quarters of FY23. While revenue grew by 3.44% to 1,002.28 Million in
FY22, segmental EBIDTA loss for matrimony increased from 955.57 Million in FY21 to
1,204.18 Million in FY22.
We have proactively undertaken a detailed review of the business and initiated the
process of deploying a substantially revamped strategic roadmap.
In FY22, we acquired 79.22% (pre-creation of ESOP Pool) of Aisle Network Private
Limited, which is engaged in the business of running multiple serious dating platforms on
the web via its mobile apps. This is expected to provide a diversified proposition for us
in the online matrimonial space.
Overall, primarily driven by the significant improvement in the recruitment and
education classified business, the Company’s standalone performance improved
significantly in FY22.
Billing increased by 58.70% to 18,660.18 Million in FY22, while revenues increased by
38.52% to 15,624.59 Million. Operating EBITDA grew by 60.96% to 4,637.30 Million.
Importantly, deferred sales revenue stood at 8,195.97 Million as on March 31, 2022 –
representing a growth of 57.12% over March 31, 2021. This reflects the strong
revenue-generating potential of the business in FY23. Importantly, driven by significant
growth in cash flow from operations from 3,809.35 Million in FY21 to 9,073.89 Million in
FY22, the cash balance at an overall level stood at an extremely healthy position at
37,586.93 Million as on March 31, 2022. Leveraging our solid financial foundation, we are
poised to embark on a new accelerated growth trajectory over the next few years.
ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENTS
While we continue to focus on different industries and businesses, as a corporate
entity, we emphasise on two critical internal assets – people and technology.
Internally, we have put strategies in place to preserve and grow our own talent pool,
including the launch of an ESOP programme that is focused on talent retention. Our campus
hiring process has also been ramped up significantly to get talent on board from an early
stage. On the technology front, we continue to invest in building stronger teams with
dedicated projects related to machine learning and AI. Major efforts are being undertaken
in data mining and data analytics to create cutting-edge solutions for all our products.
We will continue to remain steadfast with our investments on both these fronts over the
near future.
INVESTEE COMPANIES
As I alluded to last year, we now have two clear objectives in terms of our investee
companies. First, there are a set of strategic investments that support our core
businesses and enhance our offerings to clients in our four core domains. Second, there
are financial investments in entities for future value accretion. While the first set of
investments is part of the growth strategy of the core business, the financial investments
are focused on deriving share value appreciation from a mid to long-term perspective. To
create greater clarity and promote efficiency, these financial investments are now routed
through a set of Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs) in partnership with our long-term
investment partner Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (through its indirect wholly-owned
subsidiary MacRitchie Investments Pte. Limited).
From the portfolio, we nurtured two of the largest entities over time – Zomato
Limited (Zomato) and PB Fintech Limited (Policybazaar) – which got listed in FY22.
Both garnered a favourable response from marquee investors and were landmark events on
Indian stock exchanges. The valuations of these businesses are now driven by the stock
market and have seen some depletion in the last quarter of FY22. However, we remain
committed to these investments, which are managed effectively by a focused team that looks
at the longer-term value goals of these investments.
The new phase of value-generating investments for the Company was initiated with the
setting up of Info Edge Venture Fund (IEVF) in 2019. Under the IEVF, in January 2020, the
first scheme namely IE Venture Fund - I was launched with a fund size of $100 Million in
partnership with MacRitchie Investments Pte. Limited. This fund has made several
investments during FY22 across food-tech, insure-tech, Web 3.0, health-tech, fintech,
edtech, agri-tech and retail-tech sectors. By March 31, 2022, the fund has been able to
successfully invest 80% of its corpus with 28 investments. Of these, 10 entities have been
able to raise a follow-on round from marquee investors at higher valuations.
In addition, the Company has now launched an additional scheme under IEVF called IE
Venture Fund Follow-on I with a corpus of $100 Million, which will invest in the emerging
winners from IE Venture Fund - I. It has also set up two additional AIFs named Info Edge
Capital and Capital 2B. Under Info Edge Capital, the scheme IE Venture Investment Fund II
with a total corpus of $150 Million will continue to invest in new start-ups as per the
strategy that IE Venture Fund - I had adopted. The fund Capital 2B has launched the scheme
– Capital 2B Fund I – with a corpus of $75 Million. This fund will focus on
investments in deep technology and patents. This is the next stage of the portfolio
investment strategy of Info Edge (India) Limited. All these funds and schemes with a total
target corpus of $325 Million have already been approved by SEBI. Info Edge and MacRitchie
Investments Pte. Limited have committed to approximately 50% each of the total corpora of
the schemes. Relevant approval from the shareholders, as per SEBI Listing Regulations and
MCA circulars, has been secured through a postal ballot on May 21, 2022. These schemes
will have a life of 12 years and are further extendable by two years as per SEBI
Regulations.
Today, I believe the worst of COVID is behind us and as a business, we are poised to
launch a new round of growth. We have streamlined teams and internal operations over this
period and revised our strategies to successfully embark on the next round of rapid
growth.
TOWARDS BETTER PERFORMANCE AND SUSTAINABLE VALUE CREATION
As a company, we have done well to overcome the difficult phase of the COVID-19
pandemic, from a humanitarian and business perspective. We took several proactive steps to
provide the necessary healthcare services to the affected and were an early mover in
promoting vaccination among our stakeholders. The entire experience has taught us to
optimise workflows and evolve an effective and efficient, hybrid mode of operations.
Today, I believe the worst of COVID is behind us and as a business, we are poised to
launch a new round of growth. We have streamlined teams and internal operations over this
period and revised our strategies to successfully embark on the next round of rapid
growth.
I thank all the employees and stakeholders who have been pillars of strength in these
challenging times. I look forward to your good wishes as we embark on the next round in
our journey of excellence.
Best wishes,
HITESH OBEROI
  Â
Info Edge (India) Ltd
Company History
Info Edge (India) Ltd. is one of India's premier internet based business. The Company is primarily in the business of operating multiple internet based services through its various web portals and mobile applications. It currently operates in four service verticals such as, in recruitment solutions through its brands naukri.com, iimjobs.com, hirist.com, ambitionbox.com, bigshyft.com, jobhai.com; in real estate services through its brand 99acres.com; in matrimonial services through its brand jeevansaathi.com and in education services through its brand shiksha.com. It has a network of 79 offices located in 55 cities throughout India. It has made forays abroad into the Gulf market with the website www.naukrigulf.com and currently has offices Dubai, Bahrain, Riyadh, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
In the last decade, Info Edge has also expanded by investing in businesses that have been conceptualized and initially developed by separate entrepreneurial oriented management teams. Each of these businesses are managed externally with inputs from Info Edge. Essentially, these are part of an investment portfolio of the company. Some of these investee companies include zomato.com (online restaurant classifieds and food delivery business) and policybazaar.com (online insurance).
Info Edge India Ltd was incorporated on May 1, 1995 as Info Edge India Pvt Ltd and they went public on April 27, 2006. In March 1997, the internet portal naukri.com was launched and in December 1998, jeevansathi.com was launched.
In November 2000, the company acquired the business of Quadrangle division. In September 2004, the company acquired Jeevansathi Internet Services Pvt Ltd and they became the wholly owned subsidiary company. The internet portal 99acres.com was launched on September 15, 2005.
In July 2006, the company launched the internet portal naukrigulf.com and in July 2007, they launched the internet portal asknaukri.com. In August 2007, the company entered the domain of professional networking services by launching the internet portal brijj.com and in May 2008, they forayed into the online education by launching the internet portal shiksha.com.
During 2010-2011, the company invested in Nogle Technologies Pvt Ltd, Kinobeo Software Pvt Ltd, Ninety Nine Labels Pvt Ltd, Zomato.com etc. During 2011-2012, the company invested in Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd, Zomato Media Pvt Ltd, Happily Unmarried Marketing Pvt Ltd. The company also acquired the business of Tootstep consultancy private Ltd during the year under review. During 2012-2013, the company acquired Makesence Technologies Pvt Ltd. During the 2014-2015, the company gets RBI nod to raise FII investment limit. The company also made investment in Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd and also transfered Policybazar shareholding during the year under review.
In August 2015, the company made investment in Mint Bird Technologies Private Limited. The website, www.vacationlabs.com, is a web-based booking system for tour operators providing services such as processing bookings, collecting payments, sending confirmation emails, reminder emails, feedback requests, accounting, and more.
On 13 October 2015, Info Edge (India) announced that it has transferred its entire shareholding in Etechaces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited (Etechaces or Policybazaar to its wholly owned subsidiary MakeSense Technologies Limited (Makesense) for a total consideration of about Rs 101.30 crore. Makesense has entered into a definitive agreement with MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd. (MacRitchie), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek, an investment company based in Singapore, enabling MacRitchie to subscribe to the shares of Makesense to extent of 49.99% of its share capital (on a fully converted and diluted basis) for a total consideration of about Rs 134.10 crore. Out of the above funds, Makesense will invest an amount of about Rs 31.10 crore in Policybazaar and this is part of the fund raising undertaken by Policybazaar in March 2015, wherein funding from Makesense was subject to approval from FIPB. Funds aggregating to about Rs 101.30 crore would be used by Makesense to retire its payable to Info Edge (India). Consequent to the aforesaid transaction, Info Edge (India) will own 50.01% of MakeSense and Makesense will hold about 19.65% of Policybazaar.
On 30 January 2016, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, invested an additional amount of Rs 5 crore through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares in Happily Unmarried Marketing Private Limited, which is engaged in the business of sale of fun & creative products. It owns and operates the site www.happilyunmarried.com. Accordingly, the aggregate investment, including the above, is now Rs16.4 crore in Happily Unmarried Private Limited which translates to about 44% stake in the company on a fully converted and diluted basis.
On 22 November 2017, Info Edge (India) announced that pursuant to the acquisition of Cathero Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Runnr), an on-demand logistics and delivery company and other restructuring by Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd., Info Edge (India) along with its wholly owned subsidiary holds about 44.74% in Zomato on fully converted and diluted basis.
On 19 December 2017, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly owned subsidiary about Rs 12.50 crore in International Educational Gateway Private Ltd. (Univariety). The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 29.62% on fully converted and diluted basis. Univariety is engaged in the educational business of providing products and services and counseling to students, schools, colleges and educators.
The Board of Directors of Info Edge (India) at its meeting held on 1 February 2018 accorded its approval to allow divestment of 32,629 equity shares of Zomato Media Private Ltd. (Zomato), being 6.66% of the paid-up share capital of Zomato on fully converted and diluted basis, either directly or through its wholly owned subsidiary - Naukri Internet Services (NISL), as may be deemed fit in the best interests of the company, at a consideration of rupee equivalent of USD 50 million.
On 1 March 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly owned subsidiary about Rs 6.40 crore in Agstack Technologies Private Limited. (Gramophone). The aggregating shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 25% on fully converted and diluted basis. Gramophone is a technology enabled marketplace for enabling efficient farm management.
Info Edge (India) crossed the total income figure of Rs 1000 crore for the first time in Financial Year 2017-2018..On 19 April 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3 crore in Bizcrum lnfotech Private Ltd. (ShoeKonnect). The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 20% on fully converted and diluted basis. ShoeKonnect is a B2B marketplace that enables footwear brands, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to connect, communicate and transact with each other for conducting and expanding their business.
On 3 May 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3.43 crore in Rare Media Company Private Ltd. It is a follow up round of investment in Rare Media which is already an associate of the company. The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this investment, in the said entity would be 43.86% on fully converted and diluted basis. Rare Media is engaged in building the future of work using pioneering technology.
On 25 June 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that subject to requisite regulatory and other approvals, as may be applicable, including that of Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal (FIFP), the company has entered into an agreement with SVF India Holdings (Cayman) Limited (Soft Bank), a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Vision Fund L.P., of which SoftBank Group Corp. is a limited partner, whereby Soft Bank has agreed to invest an amount equivalent to about USD 45 million for 49.99% stake (on a fully diluted basis) in Diphda Internet Services Ltd. (Diphda), a wholly owned-subsidiary of the company, for the time being. Info Edge (India) has also agreed to invest an amount equivalent to about USD 45 million in Diphda for 50.01% stake (on a fully diluted basis) and to jointly invest through Diphda, an amount equivalent to about USD 90 million in Etechaces Marketing & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Etechaces) for 8.93% stake (on a fully diluted basis post completion of fund raise exercise with other investors).
On 5 July 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has agreed to jointly invest with MacRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd. (MacRitchie), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek, an amount of about Rs190.51 crore in Etechaces Marketing & Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Etechaces) for 3.5% stake (subject to change consequent to completion of primary investment in Etechaces announced by the company on 25 June 2018) by purchasing the shares held by PI Opportunities Fund I (PIOF) through its subsidiary, MakeSense Technologies Ltd. Consequent to the aforesaid transaction, Info Edge (India) will own 50.01% of MakeSense and MakeSense will hold about 19.92% (including existing stake of 16.42%) of Etechaces on fully converted & diluted basis.
On 6 July 2018, Info Edge (India) announced that the company has invested through its wholly-owned subsidiary about Rs 3 crore in Ideacficks Infolabs Private Limited (Zippserv). The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this initial investment, in the said entity would be 45.31% (subject to change pursuant to milestones agreed in the relevant Investment Agreement) on fully converted & diluted basis. Zippserv (www.zerv.corn) is an online platform which provides data-driven real estate intelligence to enable smart property purchase. The company's two flagship products are 'CleanProperties' and 'PricePoint'. CleanProperties provides instant access to land titles, conversion records, building approvals, liens and litigations for thousands of ongoing apartment projects. PricePoint's analytics engine tracks lakhs of recently registered sale transactions and gives granular actionable insights for buyers at a project level so that buyers get a leg up in negotiations.
In May 2019, the Company acquired share capital of iimjobs for an all-cash deal of Rs. 808 million.
During FY 2019-20, Company acquired Highorbit Careers Private Limited on May 27, 2019. It launched Category II SEBI-approved Alternate Investment Fund, called the Info Edge Venture Fund. Since its launch, it has made 7 investments in Qyuki, Dotpe, Fanclash, Truemeds, Ruskmedia, Bulbul and Firsthive.
In June 2021, Company acquired Bengaluru-based, Zwayam Digital Private Limited. In July 2021, It acquired Axilly Labs Private Limited (Doselect). It has made strategic investment in related and adjacent business in Terralytics Analysis Pvt. Ltd. and 4B Networks Pvt. Ltd.
During the year 2022, the Board of Directors of the Company, in its meeting held on November 10, 2020, had approved the Scheme
of Amalgamation between the Company (Transferee Company) and Highorbit Careers Private Limited (Transferor Company', the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Transferee Company with the appointed date being April 1, 2020. The Scheme was sanctioned by the Hon'ble NCLT vide its Order dated March 8, 2022 on which date, the Transferor Company stood dissolved.
During 2022, the Company through its wholly owned subsidiary, Allcheckdeals India Pvt. Ltd., acquired 62.52% stake in 4B Network Private Limited. It acquired 79.62% of Aisle Network Private Limited in Mar' 22.
During the year 2022-23, the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Startup Investments (Holding) Ltd. (SIHL) had acquired, 2,356 shares of Sunrise and consequently Sunrise became subsidiary of the Company. The Company acquired shares of Sploot Pvt. Ltd. and Sploot became an associate of the Company.
The Company during FY23 had added second scheme, IE Venture Fund Follow-on I (IEVF Follow-on Fund) to the IEVF and floated other two AIFs namely, Info Edge Capital (IEC) and Capital 2B (C2B). The Company launched MyKindaNaukri brand that highlights and reflects changing workplace and jobseeker needs. A solution was launched to help resale and rental brokers connect with owners for their supply needs.