After months of speculation and waiting Naukri.com finally and officially announced that it its going public . it has submited its IPO filing with sebi . you can read it here .
Althoug timing is a little odd but still this is really an exciting news for Internet Business in India . Sanjeev has proved that Internet business can make money and to be profitable you don’t really need to have an worldwide audience to serve . you can do it by serving the need to domestic customers also .
i had the opportunity to meet Hitesh and Sanjeev Twice . if anyone deserve this honour than it is this team. i can foresee a Mad rush to invest in all the dot com .can we say that dot com boom 2 has finally started in India . i think now VCs will start looking at companies beyond Travel portals 
Critical Q is what will they do with all the money they are raising ? there are two option which easily comes to mind 1) they will start expanding their operations overseas but honestly this doesn’t require a lot of cash they can easily leverage their “Word Of mouth ” Credentials . second is to diversify in other vertical . with jeevansaathi.com & 99acres.com in their stable this seems to be a logical step. I personally feel that 99acres is a good place to focus . in my last assignment at WebPlains (a great company BTW ) i have worked as a salesman in Staffing /recruitment domain . i have seen the clout of Naukri firsthand ( w.r.t to bixee and green hire episode ) .
and with whatever little exposure i have to real estate market i can safely say that stage is all set for infoedge to capture this market . with Naukri going public i think 99acres can get all the attention it deserve and Team infoedge should stop treating it as a step child .coming months will be interesting to watch the action .
2 comments:
Prashnat,
Glad to know you are blogging about Indian dotcom IPOs.
I also hold naukri.com in huge respect because they were probably the first Indian dotcom to have a viable business model.
On a diff note, naukri, apart from this IPO, also raised money (5 million USD , i think )through VC funding ; remember reading Sanjeev B's interview where he said he didn't do it for the money but because he wanted to learn from the experinec of international VCs.
But with IPO, they surely need money; probably for 99acres, as you point out
Hi Amit
I agree with you that Naukri deserves an applause for creating a "Proof Of Concept" example that Dotcom specially in India are not just me too vaporware . First they showed courage to make a stable business in this niche and than they set an example by not being sold out to guerrilla like their nearest Competitor .
Incidentally I was at the TiE meeting where KPCB announced their investment in Naukri.com . Many wondered the rational of off loading Equity by founders just before IPO but now it looks like a smart move and a win win deal for Both Naukri ad KPCB .
Apart from the Timing (wrt recent meltdown in stock market ) everything seems to be perfect for their IPO . but who knows there might be a big idea behind the timing factor also
i am keeping my fingers crossed .. and planning to invest in Naukri :-)
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