Tech investor Prosus bets on India to produce a $100 billion company

CNBC

2 hours ago

India will produce a $100 billion tech company in the coming years, the CEO of Prosus told CNBC on Monday, as the firm bets on the country for its next big investment win.
Prosus, which is majority owned by South African company Naspers, is one of the biggest tech investors in the world.
The company is hoping it can replicate the success it saw with its return on Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent. Prosus' parent company Naspers bought a near 50% holding in Tencent back in 2001 for around $32 million. That early stake in Tencent is now worth billions of dollars, with the WeChat operator valued at nearly $600 billion as of Monday.
"The companies there [in India] are still small, our investment there is around $10 billion, as it was in China 14 years ago," Prosus CEO Fabricio Bloisi told CNBC.
"What's the learning? We believe it's going to be, not a $20 billion company, but a $100 billion company, maybe [a] half a trillion dollar company in India. So we are not investing there to sell next month."
Prosus has invested in some of the buzziest tech firms in India, including payments service PayU and e-commerce company Meesho. Prosus also owns just under 25% of food delivery firm Swiggy, which went public in November.
Bloisi said listing Prosus' India investments are a key part of its strategy. He added that he expects five Indian companies that Prosus is invested in to carry out an initial public offering this year.
"I think this is very good for India, because we have the local markets here investing in the local companies. This was critical for U.S., this was critical for China. I think if India can greater strong local markets investing in tech, it's going to be amazing for India," Bloisi said.
Prosus has also been targeting big investments in Europe and the Latin America.
The company's playbook revolves around the idea of ecosystems surrounding services, which Tencent managed to execute in China. Tencent runs China's biggest messaging app called WeChat, which integrates features like payments and the ability to hail taxis or order food.
"We believe that we have ecosystems, just like we have in China in the U.S., like Microsoft or Uber or Google or Meta. They're not just one product. They have one product that enables cross-sell and technology shared between many other adjacencies. That's what we are doing," Bloisi said.
In Latin America, Prosus has stakes in Brazilian food delivery firm iFood, online travel firm Despegar and online marketplace OLX Brasil.
Bloisi said food delivery and payments are the foundation of their investments, followed by areas like e-commerce and experiences such as travel.
"That's the kind of ecosystem we believe. We learned that from China, we are doing that in that in Latin America right now, very, very successfully," Bloisi said.
In the meantime, Prosus this year made a proposal to acquire European food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com in an all-cash deal worth around 4.1 billion euros ($4.7 billion).
Bloisi said Prosus on Monday officially began proceedings to seek permission from the European Commission to approve the deal. The Prosus CEO said he was "optimistic" that the European regulators will "approve it quickly."