Zomato's co-founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani was re-elected as the food delivery company's non-executive director during its 12th annual general meeting. 98.91 per cent of shareholders were in favour of his reappointment, according to the company's disclosure to stock exchanges.
Bikhchandani, also the founder of Info Edge, said at the internet company's earnings call on 12 August that it was in no 'tearing hurry' to sell its stakes in Zomato and Policybazaar. Info Edge owns a 15.23 per cent stake in the restaurant aggregator platform and 13.3 per cent in the financial services company, respectively.
"If we exit our stakes in the two companies and look to deploy all that cash in other early-stage start-ups, there is a possibility that we will end up making sub-optimal investments… Typically, a fund has to write all its first cheques three years before the close of the fund. Suppose we were to deploy Rs 10,000 crore from the two exits. That would mean investing in 300 early-stage companies at an average cheque size of Rs 10 crore," Bikhchandani had stated.
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He answered this query after Info Edge sold shares that equated to a 2.32 per cent stake worth Rs 357 crore in Zomato's initial public offering (IPO). However, it did not sell any of its shares during the IPO of PB Fintech, which is Policybazaar's parent company.
Bikhchandani's Info Edge was one of the earliest backers of Zomato. The Noida-based internet services company invested Rs 4.7 crore in the food delivery platform in 2010 for around an 18.5 per cent stake. Its 15.23 per cent stake in Zomato was valued at around Rs 15,000 crore in mid-2021.
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