Info Edge commits Rs 250 crore and launches its first growth-stage investment vehicle

Info Edge Launches ₹250-Crore Growth-Stage Fund B8 Fund-I

Info Edge (India) Limited, the parent company of Naukri.com, has set up a new growth-stage investment fund with a capital commitment of ₹250 crore, according to a filing with the stock exchanges.

The new vehicle, named B8 Fund-I, marks the company’s first dedicated fund for later-stage startup investments. Sources said the fund may also raise capital from external sponsors, which could increase the total corpus beyond the initial ₹250 crore.

The Noida-headquartered company already runs multiple early-stage investment platforms. These include Info Edge Ventures, which has raised ₹2,300 crore across three funds, Capital 2B with a ₹280-crore corpus, and Redstart Labs, which focuses on AI-led startups. The company also makes direct investments through its balance sheet.

Through its balance sheet investments, Info Edge had backed companies such as Zomato and Policybazaar in their early stages.

Its venture platforms have also invested in several startups including Gnani AI, Ixigo, Shiprocket, Zingbus, and Truemeds.

In May last year, Info Edge had announced that its shareholders approved a plan to invest up to ₹1,000 crore in the third fund of Info Edge Ventures, as part of its strategy to institutionalise its startup investment platform. The Info Edge Ventures funds are managed through a 50:50 partnership with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

The newly launched ₹250-crore B8 Fund-I will focus on backing growth-stage, technology-enabled companies in India or businesses primarily focused on the Indian market. The fund is registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as a Category-II Alternative Investment Fund and will have a tenure of eight years from the first closing.

For the quarter ended December 31, Info Edge reported a 13% increase in operating revenue to ₹819 crore, while net profit rose 10% to ₹317 crore, compared with ₹288 crore in the same quarter a year earlier. The company’s shares closed 0.8% higher at ₹1,051.50 on the BSE on Thursday.