Kleiner Perkins And Ram Shriram At It Again In India; Pick Up Stake In Naukri.com

The Economic Times has lost news sense. If India’s largest internet classifieds company Naukri.com gets investment from world’s fat cat VCs, it can’t be shrugged away as a small news brief somewhere in the page X of the newsaper. Here, they have put it on page 20. Maybe they have conflicting interests (The Times Group owns TimesJobs.com and matromonial as well as property portals where Naukri is also present).
So the story is that Kleiner Perkins and Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures have picked up a stake in Naukri.com, a leading Indian jobs portal. The amount of investment or stake dilution is not public nor is there any official announcement on this. As you know, Naukri is going in for an IPO later this year, and I would call the company as the most profitable and stable Internet venture in the country. It raked in revenues of Rs 45 crore ($10 million) last year and profits of Rs 8 crore ($1.8). It’s expected to earn sales of Rs 100 crore this year. That’s a tremendous growth.
The investment is in Info Edge the company which owns Naukri.com (jobs portal), Jeevansathi.com and 99acres.com. The company has already received funding from ICICI Venture.
For KPCB and Ram Shriram, this could be the second Internet investment in India. They just picked up stake in Cleartrip.com, a travel portal.
Update:
Indiatimes is carrying a story on KPCB-Sherpalo investment in Info Edge.
Related:
Kleiner Perkins Makes First Investment In India; Invests $2.7-3 Million In Cleartrip.com
Monster, Naukri, Watch Out! CareerBuilder Is Eyeing Your Market
Naukri Owner Info Edge Will Go Public In Two Years

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