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The new boss at Dutch investment firm Prosus, Fabricio Bloisi, hosted its first ‘Prosus Illuminate’ meet in Bengaluru, aimed at showcasing the company’s global ecosystem and bringing those
learnings to India. Speaking on the sidelines, the CEO said that innovation also means bringing together entrepreneurs and founders to share what the company is doing in other regions and
applying those lessons in India.
“So our focus is to deliver in payments, e-commerce, and experience. We have an ecosystem for those areas in Brazil, in Europe, and here in India. In India, we have Swiggy, where we have
been invested for many years, and in payments, our biggest company is PayU,” he said.
In the e-commerce ecosystem, the company is also a leading investor in Meesho, which is eyeing an IPO. With 35 companies in its portfolio, the firm said it aims not just to create unicorns
but to build 10 or 50 billion-dollar companies emerging from the region.
With over $8 billion invested in its portfolio companies in India, Prosus has seen exits from Flipkart and, more recently, Swiggy. The company, which intends to grow 5x, said that it will
continue to invest in India—specifically in ecosystem-related businesses (payments, e-commerce, and tech), and in those that are innovation-led.
“What this means, first and foremost, is to deliver on priority areas. That’s why we always say food delivery and payments form the foundation—because these are high-frequency businesses. We
believe that’s critical for the ecosystem. You need a base where people transact two to four times a week. On top of that, you can build adjacencies. But it has to start with high-frequency
businesses. Our bet is on delivery and payments; beyond that, we are looking at e-commerce and experience,” Bloisi said.
For the investor, food delivery in India will remain a priority, given the high frequency of transactions and the fact that payments form its backbone. The region, he said, already has the
right ecosystem. “You have to start with high-frequency businesses. Our bet is on delivery and payments; on top of that, we are looking for e-commerce and experience,” Bloisi said. He
further explained that Prosus is eyeing companies that can either grow faster with its capital or help Prosus scale its investments more rapidly.
The company, which has also been a strong backer in the edtech space, wrote off its over nine percent investment in Indian edtech firm Byju’s, marking a loss of over $490 million in August
last year. “I don't suffer as much as you think over edtech,” Bloisi said, adding that mistakes are part of life and learning.
He explained that the hundreds of millions Prosus invested in India were aimed at using technology to make the country run better and provide a competitive advantage to the region. He also
pointed out that other investors who backed edtech globally have not seen the expected growth. While Prosus incurred losses on its Byju’s investment, Bloisi noted that other bets have more
than made up for it—especially its exit from Swiggy, which yielded over $500 million. The company remains the single largest shareholder in Swiggy, holding a 23.31% stake as of May 2, 2025,
and intends to stay invested as long as needed.