Food delivery, fintech and classifieds in Naspers’ list

NEW DELHI: Naspers will continue to bet on India, a market that has emerged as one of the most lucrative landscapes for the global strategic investor, which has pumped in over $2 billion in Asia’s third-largest economy till date. Naspers, which recorded a $2.2 billion exit from Flipkart, India’s largest domestic online retailer, post the latter’s acquisition by Walmart earlier this year, will continue to allocate significant amounts of capital to ventures operating across three segments primarily — food delivery, classifieds and fin tech — according to chief executive Bob van Dijk.

“If you look backwards, we have spent about $2 billion over the years, and that’s big part of our overall investments… Historically, we have spent a good chunk of our investment money into the Indian market,” van Dijk said, adding, “It could be much higher or lower…It’s been about 20% over the past 10 years, but much higher over the last few years.”

The Naspers CEO was speaking to reporters during the Johannesburg-based company’s three-day annual summit that is being held in Delhi. Van Dijk also took the example of Flipkart, a company in which the global internet and entertainment company had first invested in 2012, pumping in $612 million in the latter over the years, before exiting in May earlier this year.


“We earned spectacular returns from Flipkart, a company that started from nothing by a group of Indian founders, and that’s what we do. 32% annual returns is no shame. Stock markets give you 6-7%. I’m happy with that,” van Dijk said.