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Naspers To Invest Almost $1bn In Indian Online Businesses

  • A day after it said it would lead a $540 million investment in education startup BYJU’S, Naspers announced it was making a $660 million investment in Swiggy, India’s largest food delivery platform
  • It is leading a nearly $1 billion Series H round in Swiggy, along with existing investors DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management, and new investors Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.

Toby Shapshak Contributor Enterprise & Cloud

Naspers is the most valuable listed company in Africa.Naspers

It’s been a busy week for Naspers, the largest public company in Africa, as it announced its listing on a secondary exchange in South Africa and nearly $1 billion in two significant online investments in India.

A day after it said it would lead a $540 million investment in education startup BYJU’S, Naspers announced it was making a $660 million investment in Swiggy, India’s largest food delivery platform. It is leading a nearly $1 billion Series H round in Swiggy, along with existing investors DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management, and new investors Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.

The BYJU’S investment – which includes a “significant portion” by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) – aims to grows the learning app, which has seen over 30 million students use it. It has over 2 million cumulative annual paid subscriptions, with an average engagement of 64 minutes per student daily.

Although it began as a newspaper business over 100 years ago, Naspers has diversified into pay television, ecommerce and owns a third of Tencent, the Chinese messaging and gaming giant. It is the largest emerging markets media and internet company in the world.

It has a large portfolio of investments in India, including online classifieds business OLX, leading online travel company MakeMyTrip, and payments company, PayU.

“Indian online consumers will be a significant driver of online growth in the world, and in addition to food and education,” Naspers said. “The quality of the best Indian entrepreneurs and their ability to build innovative businesses that address the unique needs of the Indian consumer offer unparalleled growth opportunities.”

In May, Naspers offloaded its stake in Flipkart, India’s largest ecommerce retailer, to Walmart.

Naspers is the largest listed company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and was the first company in Africa to reach the magical R1 trillion figure. It is headquartered in Cape Town.

The secondary listing on 27 December on the A2X Markets exchange, which does not carry additional costs for companies listed in South Africa, is because A2X offers cheaper transaction fees and is more tech-savvy.

“A2X is one of a growing number of new exchanges that are leveraging technology in an effort to reduce trading costs and increase market transparency,” said Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk. “As one of the world’s leading technology investors we understand the value of technology and are pleased to support these efforts by also listing on A2X. We believe our shareholders will appreciate the added choice of trading venues.”

Earlier this year Naspers sold a 2% stake in Tencent for nearly $10 billion – to invest in more ecommerce ventures it said at the time – and announced in September it would spin off its MultiChoice satellite television unit into a separate company, to be called MultiChoice Africa. MultiChoice’s DStv is the largest satellite pay-television operator in Africa, using a network of satellites to deliver its signal across the continent.

Three years ago Naspers launched its own Showmax streaming service, which now operates in 36 countries in Africa and operates a pure-play streaming service in Poland.

I write about how innovation is better in Africa. I define innovation as solving problems, like the real problems we have in Africa. And solving those problems, solves them for the rest of the world. Africa isn’t just mobile-first, it’s mobile-only. I spoke about this at TED…

Shapshak is editor-in-chief and publisher of Stuff magazine. Based in Johannesburg, his TED talk on innovation in Africa has had more than 1.4m views.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tobyshapshak/2018/12/21/naspers-to-invest-almost-1bn-in-indian-online-businesses/#49783b5a1f2d

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