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In his new role, ex-Razorpay associate director of corporate development Johney Maheshwari will lead the M&A and investment initiatives to drive Times Internet's inorganic growth
Under his leadership, the company will increase its investments in early stage companies operating in segments like news, sports, financial services, events, among others
Times Internet claims to have deployed over INR 1,000 Cr in investments and acquisitions over the past 10 years
Times Internet has roped in Johney Maheshwari, the former associate director of corporate development (investments and M&A) at Razorpay, to head its corporate development vertical.
In his new role, Maheshwari will lead the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and investment initiatives to drive Times Internet’s inorganic growth.
Maheshwari told Inc42 that Times Internet will explore investment opportunities in segments like news, sports, financial services, events, among others. “We will likely increase our investment velocity in early stage companies that can benefit from our capabilities on growing consumer businesses,” he added.Times Internet has been a prolific investor in the Indian startup ecosystem, having backed names like Delhivery, Pocket FM, MPL, Swiggy, among others. It claims to have deployed over INR 1,000 Cr in investments and acquisitions over the past 10 years.
“Strategic investments and M&A have been foundational to our growth story, and with Johney’s exceptional track record and deep industry insights, we’re reinvigorating this crucial aspect of our business,” Times Internet COO Puneet Gupt said.
However, in recent times, the technology company has sold some of its digital properties. This includes the sales of short-video platform MX Takatak to ShareChat; MensXP, iDiva, and Hypp to Times Internet; Dineout to Swiggy; and MX Player to Amazon.
Betting Big On AI: Maheshwari said that Times Internet invests off its balance sheet. Hence, as of now, the group doesn’t have any predetermined corpus earmarked solely for investing. “If the right opportunity emerges, we take it,” he said.
He is particularly bullish on AI and said that Times Internet is aggressively pushing its teams to experiment and utilise frontier AI technologies across all elements of its business.
“Some of this will be in the back end, and some will redefine consumer experiences, like personalised content and new experiences. Certainly, our M&A visibility will put particular attention on applied AI opportunities as well,” he said.
On the front end, the company has been experimenting with GenAI for some time now. In October, it said that its chatbot platform, which comprises multiple chatbots which interact with readers, has been “one of its most promising ventures”.
Besides, Times Internet also launched a full-stack content management system (CMS) named Denmark to help its editorial teams create “powerful and diverse content” for its digital properties.
These digital properties include Times Of India, Economic Times, Navbharat Times, Maharashtra Times, among others.
Maheshwari’s Journey to Times: The ex-DCE (Delhi College of Engineering) engineer spent about four years (between 2021 to 2025) at fintech unicorn Razorpay. At the fintech major, he was in-charge of driving inorganic growth via M&As, investments, among others.
He claims to have led Razorpay’s acquisition of BillMe, Exetap, PoshVine, Curlec, among others.
Prior to that, he worked for EY for about six years in similar roles. He left the company as a vice president, leading M&A and PE fundraising in financial services and fintech sectors.
As per his LinkedIn profile, during his tenure at EY, his major assignments included advising StockEdge in its strategic partnership and capital raise from Kotak Securities, advising Indiabulls Consumer Finance in acquiring Transerv, among others.
