Prosus N.V., or Prosus, is a global investment group that is investing and operating across sectors and markets with long-term growth potential. It is among the largest technology investors in the world.
Prosus has invested across multiple verticals, including social / gaming, classifieds, payments and
fintech
Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are ...
, edtech, food delivery and ecommerce. Products and services of its businesses and investments are used by more than 1.5 billion people in 89 markets.
[
Prosus is majority-owned by South African multinational ]Naspers
Naspers Limited is a South African multinational internet, technology and multimedia holding company headquartered in Cape Town, with interests in online retail, publishing and venture capital investment. Naspers' principal shareholder is its ...
. In September 2019, Prosus's ordinary shares were listed on Euronext Amsterdam
Euronext Amsterdam is a stock exchange based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Formerly known as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, it merged on 22 September 2000 with the Brussels Stock Exchange and the Paris Stock Exchange to form Euronext. The reg ...
and, as a secondary inward-listing, on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...
. Subsequent to its , Prosus is the largest consumer Internet company in Europe by asset value. Shares in the company were reported to have "soared on debut,"[ although the company was trading at a significant discount to the value of its portfolio.
]
Business
The group's expansion into Internet platforms began in the 1990s,[ spanning various tech investments, including:
* Social - ]Tencent
Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the wo ...
(30.86%)
* Classifieds - OLX (100%), EPMG, OfferUp
* Fintech - PayU (98.8%), Remitly, Red Dot Payment, BUX
* Food - iFood (100%), Delivery Hero
Delivery Hero is a German multinational online food-delivery service based in Berlin, Germany. The company operates in 50+ countries internationally in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East and partners with 500,000+ restaurants. Deli ...
(22.3%), Swiggy
Swiggy is an Indian online food ordering and delivery platform. Founded in July 2014, Swiggy is based in Bangalore and operates in 500 Indian cities as of September 2021. Besides food delivery, Swiggy also provides on-demand grocery deliveries ...
(38.8%), Oda, Flink, Wolt, Foodics, ShareBite, Facily
* EdTech - Stack Overflow
In software, a stack overflow occurs if the call stack pointer exceeds the stack bound. The call stack may consist of a limited amount of address space, often determined at the start of the program. The size of the call stack depends on many facto ...
, Brainly
Brainly is a company based in Kraków, Poland, with headquarters in New York City. It is social learning platform where students and educators solve their academic problems together Brainly's mission is to inspire students to share and explore ...
, Udemy
Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar.
As of November 2022, the platform has more than 57 million students, 213,000 courses, and 74,000 ins ...
, Skillsoft, GoStudent, GoodHabitz, Eruditus, BYJU's, Platzi, EduMe and SoloLearn
* Ecommerce - eMag (80.1%), Meesho, Mensa Brands, PharmEasy, Ula, ElasticRun, merXu, The Good Glamm Group
* Travel - Ctrip
Trip.com Group Limited (, formerly Ctrip.com International) is a Chinese multinational online travel company that provides services including accommodation reservation, transportation ticketing, packaged tours and corporate travel management. Fo ...
(6%)
* Mobility / Logistics - Bykea, 99minutos, QuickRide, Dott, Shipper
* AgriTech: DeHaat, VeGrow, CaptainFresh
* Other: Airmeet, Wayflyer
Prosus is best known for its investments in Tencent, dating back to a 45% share in 2001. In 2019 the company attempted to acquire Just Eat, but lost the bidding war to Takeaway.com.
In March 2022, Prosus announced it was writing off its 25.9% stake (worth approximately US$700m) in social media company VK, after VK's CEO Vladimir Kirienko was put on a U.S. sanctions list.
Controversy
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine which began on February 24, many international, particularly Western companies pulled out of Russia. Unlike most of its Western competitors, Prosus has been slow to announce any disinvestments or scaling back of its operations in Russia, drawing criticism. The criticism concerned in particular its Avito
Avito is a Russian classified advertisements website with sections devoted to general goods for sale, jobs, real estate, personals, cars for sale, and services. Avito is the most popular classifieds site in Russia and is the biggest classified ...
service (a subsidiary of OLX), which among others publishes advertisements about recruiting to the Russian army.
Acquisitions
References
External links
{{Euro Stoxx 50 Companies
Companies based in Amsterdam
Companies listed on Euronext Amsterdam
Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Financial technology companies
2019 initial public offerings
Companies in the Euro Stoxx 50
Tencent