Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, one of India's top startup investors, has had more big misses than hits in his investment journey.
While his early bets on Zomato and Policybazaar have reaped rich value for Info Edge shareholders, the startup guru said that he had passed on the chance to invest in companies like Flipkart, Ola, BigBasket and Snapdeal.
"My anti-portfolio is crazy. I gave up the chance to invest in Flipkart at the pre-Series A stage even without meeting the founders. I said no to Snapdeal twice. And I passed on Ola and BigBasket," said Bikhchandani.
In the startup world, the term 'anti-portfolio' refers to the companies an investor declined to back in the early stage which later went on to become big successes.
"People still think we are good investors. It's because what matters is whether enough of the investments that you have made turn out to be good," he said.
Info Edge’s cost of investment in Zomato was Rs 147 crore while it currently holds a 13.7 percent stake in the company which is worth over Rs 18,300 at the food delivery’s current stock price. As such, it is sitting on unrealised gains worth 124X in Zomato.
Similarly, the cost of investment in Policybazaar was Rs 576 crore and its current stake of 13.28 percent is worth over Rs 6,500 crore.
To be sure, Info Edge has had its fair share of bets going sour as well, such as Canvera, Bijnis and Rahul Yadav’s 4B Networks most recently.
“We don’t invest in sectors. We choose founders and companies... When we went to the Board about investing in FoodieBay (earlier avatar of Zomato), you know what the feedback was? They asked how many cities there are with a restaurant directory and how many of these restaurants have a marketing budget,” said Bikhchandani at the TieCon 2024 in Delhi.
Speaking to startup founders, he shared anecdotes about running the company’s recruitment services platform Naukri as a bootstrapped company in the 90s.
“I went for a couple of meetings with venture capital firms as there was in-bound interest and figured that I don’t want to complicate my life. So, I kept saying no. Then Jobs Ahead launched and raised $7 million. That’s when we were forced to go to the market and raise money,” he said.
“Before we raised venture capital, we had no money in the bank by the end of every month. But something would happen and we managed to stay put,” he added.
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