Prosus In Talks To Invest $200 Mn In Rapido At $2.5 Bn Valuation: Report

Global investor Prosus is reportedly in talks to invest an additional $200 Mn (about INR 1,752 Cr) in ride-hailing unicorn Rapido.

A Moneycontrol report, citing sources, said that negotiations are ongoing currently for the round which would value Rapido at about $2.5 Bn to $2.7 Bn, more than double than its last valuation of $1.1 Bn.

The fund infusion can be via a fresh issue or secondary deal. The size of the round may increase if Prosus decides to go with a combination of primary capital and secondary deal, the report added.

While Prosus declined to comment on “market rumours”, a questionnaire sent to Rapido didn’t elicit any response till the time of publishing this story.

This comes over 6 months after Inc42 reported that Rapido parent Roppen Transportation Services got approval from its shareholders to raise INR 250 Cr from Prosus.

The report also comes at a time when Swiggy is looking to divest its stake in Rapido due to the latter’s entry in the food delivery segment. Swiggy, which owns around 12% stake in Rapido, said in its Q1 shareholders’ letter that it is mulling exiting the company due to potential conflict of interest.

Notably, Rapido launched its food delivery platform Ownly in Bengaluru earlier this month. It is currently live in three areas of the city – Koramangala, HSR and BTM layout.

Meanwhile, Rapido has also strengthened its position in the country’s ride-hailing market over the years. While it started as a bike taxi service provider, it has expanded its operations and also provides autorickshaw and cab services. Recently, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that Rapido has overtaken Ola to emerge as the toughest competitor for the American company in the Indian market.

On the financial front, Rapido trimmed its loss by more than 45% to INR 370 Cr in FY24 from INR 675 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Revenue zoomed 1.5X to INR 648.1 Cr during the year from INR 443 Cr in FY23.

Prosus Bullish On India

Prosus’ move to double down on its investment in Rapido signals the growing importance of the Indian market for the investor.

The investor entered the Indian market in 2015. Since then, it has invested $8.6 Bn across more than 30 Indian startups till date.

After pocketing nearly $500 Mn from the public listing of its portfolio company Swiggy in December last year, Prosus CEO Fabricio Bloisi said in June that the company was eyeing 5 more IPOs from its portfolio.

Of these, BlueStone made its public market debut earlier this month. Meesho, Urban Company, and Captain Fresh are some of the other companies from Prosus’ investment portfolio which are gearing up for their public listings.

Recently, Prosus infused an additional INR 302 Cr in its portfolio company PayU to facilitate the growth of its credit business. It also participated in telecom startup WIOM’s $35 Mn funding round, along with Bertelsmann India Investments, Accel and Promaft Partners.

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