Info Edge (India) Ltd, the operator of Naukri.com and one of India’s earliest investors in the consumer internet ecosystem, is expanding its investment playbook yet again, this time with a dedicated growth-stage vehicle.
The company’s board has approved a commitment of up to Rs 250 crore to B8 Fund I, a newly launched Category II alternative investment fund that will back growth-stage, tech-enabled companies in India. This marks a significant addition to its already sprawling venture portfolio valued at about Rs 48,000 crore.
The move also fills a structural gap in Info Edge’s investment architecture: a formal vehicle aimed squarely at late-stage bets. With the new fund, Info Edge now has exposure across five distinct pools of capital, spanning seed to growth stage.
From strategic investor to capital platform
Info Edge was founded by Sanjeev Bhikchandani in 1995 as an internet company initially focusing on online classifieds. It launched job portal Naukri.com in 1997, followed by expansion into other verticals including matrimony (Jeevansathi.com), real estate (99acres.com), and education (Shiksha.com). In 2006, Info Edge became the first Indian internet company to list on the stock exchange.
Over the past decade, Info Edge has evolved from being a strategic investor writing occasional balance-sheet cheques into a listed venture platform.
Its current capital exposure comprises:
- Rs 2,300 crore committed across three funds under Info Edge Ventures
- Rs 280 crore committed to Capital2B
- Rs 110 crore deployed through its seed platform Redstart
- Rs 2,000 crore invested directly from its balance sheet
- Rs 250 crore newly committed to the growth-stage vehicle
In all, this amounts to nearly Rs 4,940 crore of committed or deployed capital.
The scale of the ecosystem built around these commitments is even larger. As of December 31, 2025, the fair market value of Info Edge’s total portfolio, across its balance-sheet investments and fund vehicles, including capital raised from external limited partners, stood at about Rs 48,000 crore.
This figure underscores how central investing has become to the company’s identity.
A history of outsized bets
Info Edge’s reputation as an investor was cemented through early stakes in companies such as Zomato and Policybazaar, both of which went on to list publicly. These investments, initially made from the company’s own balance sheet, generated significant mark-to-market gains and shaped its capital allocation philosophy.
Over time, the company institutionalised that strategy.
Info Edge Ventures was set up in 2020 to manage pooled capital across multiple funds, bringing in external limited partners. Capital2B sharpened the focus towards deeptech and enterprise startups. Redstart operated as an internal seed platform, writing smaller cheques at the earliest stages.
However, until now, there was no dedicated vehicle targeting companies further along the maturity curve.
Why growth now?
The new Rs 250-crore commitment signals a calibrated shift in InfoEdge's investment approach.
Growth-stage investing typically involves larger ticket sizes, more established business models, and comparatively lower early-stage mortality risk, though often at tighter entry valuations. By launching a formal growth vehicle, Info Edge appears to be smoothing its exposure across the startup lifecycle, from seed to late-stage.
This also allows a clearer separation between operating business cash flows and managed investment capital. With subsidiaries acting as sponsor and investment manager, the platform increasingly resembles a multi-vehicle investment house within a listed internet company.
The shareholder question
InfoEdge's Rs 48,000-crore portfolio value is headline-grabbing, but it also raises hard questions from investors: What is the breakdown between liquid and private market assets? Can the company replicate the outsized gains of its first-generation of startup bets?
These questions matter because the company today sits at an unusual intersection: partly operating as an internet business and partly as a long-duration venture investor.
The addition of a growth-stage fund indicates that the management sees investing not as an opportunistic deployment of surplus cash but as a permanent, structured pillar of the company’s strategy.
Edited by Swetha Kannan
Original Article
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