Internet VC Activity in India

InfoEdge, which owns some of India’s hottest Internet properties including the largest job portal Naukri.com, Real Estate search engine 99acres.com, and matrimonial site Jeevan Sathi has got funding from KPCB and Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures. InfoEdge did $10 million last year with profits of $1.8. Revenues are expected to more than double this year, and the company expects to go public this year.

The Indian stock market has traditionally valued outsourcing services companies very high, and for the longest time, it made a lot of sense for relatively small companies to go public in India. Cybermedia, a publishing company that owns some of the top IT related magazines in India like Dataquest, went public last year, also on a relatively small revenue in the range of $12 Million.

I had to raise my eyebrows, however, to read that Kleiner buys into the strategy of an IPO that is so small. Something doesn’t compute. There is some speculation that since both John Doerr and Ram Shriram are on the Board of Google, Google may consider buying them as part of their India strategy, as well as their need to diversify revenues.

Who knows? Good news, however, is that some viable Internet businesses are getting built in India, and they are getting attention from the top rung of US VCs. After all, as far as consumer markets go, in the next decade, India will emerge as one of the top ones!