Prosus sees strong returns with $8.6 billion investment in India

Prosus Group has invested $8.6 billion in India and has seen a very good return already, according to Fabricio Bloisi, CEO of Prosus and Naspers.

“India presents Prosus with incredible opportunity... We continue to see a lot of opportunity in the region,” Bloisi said in a shareholder letter update on FY25 performance.

In late 2024, Prosus-backed Swiggy achieved a major milestone by going public. "We made important moves during the year, bringing in almost $2.4 billion through trimming our position in Swiggy at its listing, selling our stakes in Trip and Tazz, trimming of our position in Udemy and completing the sale of our Payments business in Latin America and Africa," said Bloisi.

Prosus currently holds a 25% stake in Swiggy after selling a portion of its initial 31% investment in the company's IPO. This stake is part of Prosus's $1.3 billion investment in Swiggy before its public listing in India.

“Recently, we invested in Rapido which is growing more than 100% year-on-year in ride-hailing and doing more than 3M (million) rides per day,” said Bloisi.

The Prosus CEO said the tech investor is working hard to build the number 1 lifestyle ecommerce ecosystems in Latin America, India and Europe. “Looking ahead, now 10 months in the role, I am more confident than ever, and certain that Prosus is a differentiated European company offering our partners an exceptional opportunity to diversify their portfolios and find growth, profit and innovation outside of the US,” he said.

Prosus will announce its full results in June. “You will see that Prosus continues to grow revenue and profitability strongly,” Bloisi said.

This comes nine months after Prosus wrote off its 9.6% stake in edtech platform Byju's citing a decrease in value for equity investors. The company reported a value loss of $493 million in the reporting year that ended on March 31, 2024.

The Prosus group has built businesses in the online classifieds, food delivery, payments and fintech, and education technology sectors. Through the Prosus Ventures team, the group invests in new technology growth opportunities within logistics, fintech, health, blockchain, social and e-commerce platforms, and agriculture. Some Indian brands in which Prosus has invested in or has acquired or built include DeHaat, Good Glamm Group, Meesho, PayU India, Pharmeasy, and Swiggy among others.

Prosus is a leading investor globally in the food delivery sector, having invested more than $10 billion in companies operating across more than 70 countries. Brazilian market leader iFood, the largest food delivery company in Latin America, and German-listed global player Delivery Hero sit alongside Swiggy in Prosus’s food delivery portfolio. Prosus also holds a 4% stake in Meituan, the largest food delivery company globally.

India remains a key growth market for Prosus given the country’s impressive digital transformation in the consumer and enterprise sectors. The tech investor sees huge opportunity for value creation including a strong IPO pipeline within its current portfolio.