Info Edge Venture Fund, the recent vehicle of job portal Naukri parent, has marked its debut investment with a deal to pump money in a venture cofounded by music composer AR Rahman, film director Shekhar Kapur and angel investor Samir Bangara.
The fund will invest Rs 18 crore ($2.5 million) in compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) of Qyuki Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. On a fully converted and diluted basis, the fund would own 5.36% of the venture. The deal values the venture at Rs 356 crore ($50 million).
The fund will also invest about Rs 7.2 crore in compulsorily convertible cumulative participating debentures of the venture, which was set up in 2010 and allows individuals to discover, add and share creative content through an app.
Qyuki generated net sales of Rs 67.5 crore for 2018-19 as against Rs 14.2 crore the year before.
Info Edge Venture Fund
The Rs 100 crore fund is likely to invest in companies that provide technology to create, market and distribute products and services. The typical sweet spot of the fund is said to be between $500,000 and $5 million, though it may also invest outside this range.
Info Edge, which started Naukri.com in 1997, also operates a slew of its own Internet properties, including real estate portal 99acres.com, matrimonial website Jeevan Saathi and education services portal Shiksha.
Info Edge’s showpiece investment is in food delivery and restaurant search platform Zomato, which earlier this week acquired Uber Technologies Inc.'s food delivery business, Uber Eats, in India.
Info Edge also has a stake in online insurance aggregator Policybazaar, another unicorn with a billion-dollar valuation. It has also invested in ed-tech venture NoPaperForms and business-to-business e-commerce platform ShopKirana.
However, it hasn't been all rosy for Info Edge as venture investments come with a lot of risk. Last month, VCCircle reported that Info Edge took a haircut by exiting ed-tech platform Meritnation, its third-costliest investment in its external portfolio after Policybazaar and Zomato.