Info Edge churns portfolio, sells Canvera to Printo

Info Edge, the company that owns naukri.com and has backed several start-ups including restaurant listing and delivery app Zomato, seems to be churning its start-up portfolio.

After writing off its investments in Canvera Digital Technologies, Info Edge has transferred its 70.47 per cent stake in the firm to retail printing chain Printo and invested ~200 million in it for a 23.5 per cent stake, the company said in a disclosure Tuesday.

Canvera was Info Edge’s third largest start-up investment after Zomato and elearning firm Meritnation. Info Edge wrote off its entire investment of ~1,211 million in Canvera in 2017-18 after the founders reportedly left the company.

Interestingly, Info Edge had invested ~86 million in Canvera only in September last year. Info Edge feels Canvera has a good digital model which complements with Printo's strength in offline business. But this is not the only write-offs Info Edge has taken this year.

Info Edge has written-off ~720 million in 2017-18 in companies like Mydala, BigStylist and Canvera, it revealed in its annual report. Till date, it has invested ~9,648 million (investment value at cost) in 19 start-ups, including ~281 million in four new start-ups last year. The value of its active portfolio (at cost) is ~7,788 million. It has exited three companies (Studyplaces, Ninety Nine Labs and Nogle Technologies) and mopped up ~356 million in exits. Till date, it has made a provision of ~1,860 million for write-offs, exits or provisions.

Last week, Info Edge, posted a 16.6 per cent increase in standalone revenue for the April-June 2018 period. Its operational revenue grew to ~2,595 million for the first quarter of 2017-18, up from ~2,225 million a year earlier. It reported a standalone loss of ~137 million for the January-March 2018 quarter, as write- offs related to start-up investments rose to ~703 million from ~40 million a year earlier.

The company holds 8.93 per cent stake in insurance distributor PolicyBazaar and co-invested twice — $27.7 million with Temasek that saw PolicyBazaar raise $200 million and $45 million with SoftBank.