The Legend of Prosus.

You've probably used one or more of these popular services: Swiggy, MakeMyTrip, OLX, BYJU's, PayU or Meesho.

So here's the Question ?

What do they have in common?

You'd never guess: a little-known investor called Naspers.

With $4 billion put down over the past five years (source: ET), Naspers is the second largest online investor in India after the Japanese SoftBank. Naspers is a more amazing creature than the unicorns it has helped grow. It is based not in the US or Europe but in South Africa. It describes itself as 'a global internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world' but began life as a newspaper publisher 100 years ago.

This amazing transformation happened when, in 2001, in its quest for growth outside Africa, it bet $32 million on a Chinese startup called Tencent. Last year when Naspers sold 2% of its 33% stake in Tencent (owner of WeChat and QQ social media platforms), it got more than $10 billion for it.

It has now taken the shares of all its internet properties, including the Indian ones, and listed them under a new company, Prosus, on the Amsterdam exchange this month.

The valuation on Day 1: $100 billion for a company nobody had heard of! It is already among the 10 most valuable internet firms worldwide. And imagine, it is just getting started.

Courtesy : Sreekant Khandekar