Prosus 2024 report card: Byju’s write-off, Swiggy and PayU growth

Prosus, (formerly Naspers) has published its 2024 annual report which includes its Indian portfolio companies. While the company wrote-off its investment in Byju’s, the South African investment conglomerate also offered performance of its bet in India.

Fintrackr has analyzed the report to decode insights and nuggets into the Prosus’ portfolio which invested $8-9 billion in the country since 2018. Let’s start with Byju’s which is staring at bankruptcy.

[Byju’s]

During FY24, the investor wrote off its 9.6% stake in Byju's, amounting to an investment of $493 million, due to a significant decline in the edtech giant’s equity value. They’d done the same with Zest Money in FY2023: wrote off their substantial 19.4% stake.

[Swiggy]

Prosus holds a 32.6% stake in Swiggy (excluding ESOP) which is set to make its public debut in the coming months. According to the report, the food delivery and quick commerce firm’s revenue from operations increased by 24%, driven by a 26% rise in its gross order value during the fiscal year ending March 2024. While the investor didn’t give revenue numbers, per our calculation, Swiggy ended FY24 with Rs 10,695 crore revenue in the fiscal year ending March 2024.

Supported by a fleet of around 3,87,000 active delivery partners, Swiggy’s user base reached 104 million, according to the report.

Its food delivery biz grew in double digits while the other revenue streams including restaurant advertising and platform fees helped Swiggy improve its operational profitability, the report added.

Prosus also added a positive note to Swiggy’s quick commerce segment (Instamart) as its GOV increased with improved unit economics.

Read: IPO Prep-Swiggy paints a healthy financial picture in the first 9 months of FY24, for more details.

[PayU]

Prosus operates and owns PayU (a subsidiary of Prosus) which reported a 22% year-on-year growth on a consolidated basis to $1.1 billion in FY24. PayU’s core payment gateway biz formed 88% of its overall collection which increased 23% to $975 million while the firm’s TPV (total payment value) spiked 22% in the previous fiscal year.

According to the report, India is the largest market for its PSP business contributing 46% of core PSP revenue and 60% of TPV. Despite not being able to onboard new customers in FY24, this business grew 11% to $444 million in the said fiscal year.

PayU’s India BNPL and personal credit revenue grew 29% to $107 million while the losses for this segment increased to $20 million followed by continuous investment in building the merchant lending portfolio, as per the report.

PayU received in-principle authorization from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 April 2024 to operate as a payment aggregator. The Gurugram-based firm also began onboarding new merchants.