Passed On Opportunities To Invest In Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola: Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Reflecting on his investment journey, Info Edge cofounder Sanjeev Bikhchandani said he passed on chances to invest in startups like Flipkart, Ola, Bigbasket and Snapdeal.

Speaking at TiECon 2024 in Delhi, Bikhchandani, as per Moneycontrol, said, “My anti-portfolio is crazy”. 

The veteran entrepreneur said he gave up a chance to invest in ecommerce major Flipkart when it was at a pre-Series A stage. He also passed on the opportunity to invest in Snapdeal twice. Similarly, he also passed on the chances to make investments in Ola and BigBasket.

In the realms of startup investing, anti-portfolio refers to the startups that an investor declines to invest in for various reasons and these companies go on to become a huge success.

Despite the misses, Bikhchandani has been able to identify lucrative opportunities over the years. Info Edge, which owns and operates job portal Naukri.com, owns a 13.71% stake in Zomato and a 13.28% stake in Policybazaar.

“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 added.

It is pertinent to note that Bikhchandani earlier said that Info Edge was not in a hurry to sell stake in Zomato and PB Fintech, the parent company of Policybazaar. 

Recently, Bikhchandani said that the increase in the share prices of portfolio companies like Policybazaar and Zomato over the past 6-12 months aligns with improvements in their bottom lines.

The veteran investor has also had investments which went sour. In August last year, Bikhchandani said that the decision to invest in Rahul Yadav-led 4B Networks was a ‘mistake’.

Info Edge wrote off its equity investment in 4B Networks during the quarter ended December 2022. The investor then cited ‘excessive cash burn, prevailing liquidity issues and significant uncertainty towards funding options’ as the reasons for pulling the plug on the investment.

“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,” Bikhchandani was cited as saying at the event. 

More recently, Bikhchandani has maintained a critical stance on loss making startup’s IPO ambitions. During Info Edge’s announcement of its third-quarter financials last month, he said he was doubtful about how receptive the public markets will be for loss-making companies unless there is a clear visibility on profits in the next year or two.

Meanwhile, Info Edge last reported a 157% year-on-year (YoY) jump in its consolidated net profit to INR 119.4 Cr in Q3 FY24.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.