Prosus eyes additional stake in Rapido with $200 million investment

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Dutch investing major Prosus is in talks to invest around $200 million (around Rs 1,750 crore) in Rapido as it looks to increase ownership in the ride-hailing startup, people familiar with the development told Moneycontrol.

Prosus currently holds around 3-4 percent in Rapido. However, in the recent months, Prosus has turned bullish on the company as its growth outpaces that of Uber and Ola and Rapido also diversifies revenue streams by entering new domains like food delivery which has prompted the investor to negotiate new deals to increase its stake in the startup.

“The $200 million deal could either be in the form of primary capital or via secondary deals where Prosus picks up shares from another investor. It is also possible the total round size increases if Prosus looks at doing a combination of primary and secondary deals,” one of the people cited said.

Rapido is being valued at around $2.5-$2.7 billion during the ongoing negotiations, more than double from its valuation of $1.1 billion just eight months back in December 2024, as per sources.

Rapido and Prosus did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries.

While the round is still in the works, Prosus chief Fabricio Bloisi has remained upbeat about Rapido, a portfolio company, for a while which likely explains why the investor is considering deals to double down on the bet.

“India should be proud about…Meesho and Rapido. It's a local innovation, local technology that grew to become the number one. I think both are just starting. Because their cost structure enables them to serve a billion customers that maybe the other competitors could not serve,” Bloisi had said in an interview to Moneycontrol earlier.

“If we just help them with money, we are not doing enough. We can take these two companies and show them what we are doing in Brazil, in Europe, in the US, in Africa, in China. What enables them to move faster. And it's their merit to move faster. But they can move faster if they have the backing of a global player. That's what we are doing,” he added.

Prosus’ interest in Rapido also comes at a time when food delivery major Swiggy has launched a sale of its entire stake in the ride-hailing company. Swiggy, one of Prosus’ largest holdings in India, is looking to fully sell its 12 percent stake in Rapido as the latter enters food delivery, a move that leads to a potential conflict of interest for Swiggy.

Prosus is already a common investor in Rapido and Swiggy.

Swiggy is looking to net around $300 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) by selling its shares in Rapido, Moneycontrol had exclusively reported earlier. Swiggy had invested $120 million in the company in 2022.

The increase in the value of Swiggy’s holdings, along with an overall surge in Rapido’s valuation, is on the back of increased business. Rapido’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) has now crossed the $2 billion mark, doubling in a year’s time, making it a top player, sources told Moneycontrol.

The analysts at Citi, in a recent report, noted that Rapido had around 50 million monthly active users (MAUs) comfortably past Uber India which had MAUs of around 30 million.

In fact, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently named Rapido, not Ola, as the company’s biggest rival in India, signaling a shift in the country’s competitive ride-hailing landscape.

Until FY24, Uber was slightly larger in revenue terms. Uber India’s mobility business recorded revenues of Rs 807 crore in FY24 while Rapido clocked an operating revenue of Rs 648 crore during the same period.

For Rapido, this will be among its largest rounds. Since its inception in 2015, the company has raised over $500 million from a slew of investors. WestBridge Capital and Nexus Venture Partners are among the company’s major investors.