Info Edge (India) Limited (NSE: NAUKRI) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Feb. 05, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Anand Bansal — Executive Vice President of Administration and Facilities
Vineet Ranjan — Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Hitesh Oberoi — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Sanjeev Bikhchandani — Founder and Executive Vice Chairman
Chintan Arvind Thakkar — Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer
Analysts:
Vijit Jain — Analyst
Sachin Salgaonkar — Analyst
Vivekanand Subbaraman — Analyst
Ankur Rudra — Analyst
Nikhil Choudhary — Analyst
Abhisek Banerjee — Analyst
Amit Chandra — Analyst
Unidentified Participant
Salil Desai — Analyst
Presentation:
Anand Bansal — Executive Vice President of Administration and Facilities
Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I am Anand Bansal and will run this conference along with my colleague Vivek. We will wait for a moment as people join and settle in the virtual conference room. We’ll start the conference in a minute. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We are about to start the conference.
Vineet, we have 100 people with us. We can start the conference now.
Vineet Ranjan — Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Thank you, Anand. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Info Edge India Limited Quarter Three FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us today from the management, we have Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Vice Chairman; Mr. Hitesh Oberoi, Co-Promoter and Managing Director; Mr. Chintan Thakkar, Director and CFO.
Before we begin, we would like to draw your attention towards — to the detailed disclaimer included in the presentation for good order sake. Please note that this conference call is being recorded. All participant lines will be in listen-only mode and there’ll be an opportunity for question-and-answer after the presentation concludes.
Now, I’d like to hand over the call to Mr. Hitesh Oberoi for his opening remarks. Thank you, and over to you, Hitesh.
Hitesh Oberoi — Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Thank you, Vineet, and good evening, everyone, and welcome to Info Edge’s earnings call for the third quarter of FY ’25. We will start with an update on standalone financial performance, then cover segment results in more detail along with the commentary in standalone business. And finally, we’ll have time for Q&A.
For the standalone business in Q3 of FY ’25, billings were INR668 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 16% and revenue was INR672 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 13%. Billings and revenue including Zwayam and DoSelect were INR690 crores and INR694 crores, respectively, a Y-o-Y growth of 16% and 13%. Operating profits at the standalone level grew by 20% year-on-year to INR263 crores and the operating margin expanded by 249 basis points to 39%. The standalone business generated cash from operations of INR346 crores in Q3 of FY ’25, a Y-o-Y growth of 27%. In Q3 of FY ’25, the cash generation from the recruitment business was INR33 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 20%. The non-recruitment businesses at an aggregate level were also cash-positive and generated a cash of INR13 crores in Q3 of FY ’25 versus a cash loss of INR3 crores in the same quarter of the previous year.
In the nine months — first nine months of FY ’25, for the standalone business, billings were INR1,898 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 14% and revenue was INR1,967 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 11%. Billings and revenue including Zwayam and DoSelect were INR1,957 crores and INR2,024 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 14% and 11% respectively. Operating profits grew by 15% Y-o-Y to INR742 crores and the operating margin expanded by 126 basis points to 38%. The standalone business generated cash from operations of INR781 crores in the first nine months of FY ’25, a Y-o-Y growth of 17%. The recruitment business generated cash of INR812 crores in the first nine months and the cash losses from the non-recruitment businesses were reduced by 75% from a cash loss of INR79 crores in the first nine months of FY ’24 to INR20 crores in the first nine months of FY ’25.
EPS before exceptional items, net of tax and deferred tax for Q3 FY ’25 stood at INR20, a Y-o-Y growth of 21% and was INR58 in the first nine months of FY ’25, a Y-o-Y growth of 19%. The cash balance of Info Edge, including wholly-owned subsidiaries at the end of December ’24 stood at INR4,290 crores. The headcount as of December ’24 end was 5,883. The Board of Directors has approved entering into a contribution agreement to commit up to INR1,000 crores from Info Edge or through wholly-owned subsidiaries to to IE Venture Investment Fund III. This fund will primarily focus on investing in early-stage tech-driven start-ups in India. Key investment areas include consumer Internet platforms, software products, SaaS businesses and AI-led and AI-enabled platforms and products, amongst others.
The Board of Directors has also approved the split of existing equity shares. Each equity share with a face value of INR10 will be subdivided into five equity shares with a revised face value of INR2. The primary objective of this share split is to enhance liquidity in the market and to encourage greater retail investor participation. Both these proposals are, of course, subject to the approval of the company’s shareholders.
Moving on to segment-wise performance, we’ll start with the recruitment business. In Q3 of FY ’25, billings grew by 15% to INR494 crores and revenue grew by 12% to INR505 crores. The operating profit improved by 15% Y-o-Y to INR298 crores and the operating profit margin was 59%. Cash generated from recruitment operations was INR33 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 20%. In the first nine months of FY ’25, recruitment billings grew by 13% to INR1,417 crores and revenue grew by 9% to INR1,471 crores. The operating profit improved by 6% year-on-year to INR838 crores and the operating profit margin was 57%. Cash generated from the recruitment operation in the first nine months of FY ’25 was INR812 crores.
The key operational highlights of the business are as follows. The billing growth rate of 15% Y-o-Y in Q3 was broad-based across all segments with the IT segment growing by 16%, non-IT by 17% and the recruitment consultant segment by 9%. Key non-IT sectors like BFSI, healthcare, manufacturing and infrastructure grew at a double-digit growth rate. The GCC segment has also grown well and now contributes to about 12% to 13% of all Naukri billings. The JobSpeak Index on a Y-o-Y basis has also consistently improved over the last four quarters, progressing from minus 10% to minus 4%, then to plus 5% and reaching 7% in the most recent quarter. This trend reflects a gradually improving hiring environment.
Along with a better macro-environment as reflected in the JobSpeak Index, our niche and adjacent businesses have also continued to perform well. Our niche and adjacent businesses such as iimjobs, Naukri Gulf and Naukri Fast Forward have all shown good growth in Q3 FY ’25 as well with Y-o-Y billings growth of 29%, 21% and 21%, respectively. Zwayam and DoSelect combined also registered a billings growth of 18% on a Y-o-Y basis. Ambition Box and JobHai, which began monetization in Q4 of ’24, continued to grow and showed improved performance in this quarter as well. Although still small, these businesses hold great potential and could grow substantially over the next four to five years. Our employer branding solutions offered across platforms like Naukri, iimjobs, Hirist and Ambition Box have been well-received by our clients. We are working on strengthening these offerings further and expanding our market penetration.
On the job seeker side, our Naukri platform now hosts around 104 million resumes and has been adding an average of 19,500 resumes per day in Q3 and added an average of 19,500 resumes daily in Q3 FY ’25. From the recruiter side, metrics like searches, CV views and invites also continue to grow. In summary, our recruitment business continues to grow across all customer segments, complemented by strong performance in our niche and adjacent businesses. We remain optimistic that this positive momentum will carry forward into the upcoming quarters as long as the economy stays buoyant.
Moving over to the real estate segment. In Q3 of FY ’25, billings growth improved by 16% to INR103 crores and revenue grew by 17% to INR104 crores. Operating losses were reduced by 67% to INR5 crores versus INR15 crores in Q3 of FY ’24. This improvement was driven by revenue growth and controlled operating expense increases resulting in enhanced operating leverage for the business. Cash losses from the operation were INR3 crores versus INR7 crores in Q3 of FY ’24. In the first nine months of this year, in the real estate business, billings growth improved by 15% to INR191 crores and revenue grew by 18% to INR305 crores. Operating losses reduced by 39% to INR33 crores versus INR54 crores in the first nine months of last year and cash losses from operations were INR24 crores versus INR43 crores in the first nine months of last year.
The key operational highlights of the 99acres business are as follows for 99acres, billing growth in Q3 was driven by growth in both the number of billed customers and average billing per customer. Broker billings grew faster than developer billings. Live new project listings grew 9% in Q3 and live resale plus rental listings from brokers grew 20% year-on-year in Q3. In the upcoming quarters, 900acres will continue to focus its investments on growing its user and client base and deliver a superior platform experience to help the users make the right real-estate buying decisions.
Moving over to the matrimony business. In Q3 of FY ’25, the billing growth momentum continued. Billings grew 36% to INR28 crores and revenue grew by 24% to INR27 crores. Last year in Q3 of FY ’24, the business introduced shorter duration products, leading to more revenue being recognized within the same quarter and less carried forward to future quarters. As a result, the Y-o-Y revenue growth rate in Q3 of FY ’25 was lower than the Y-o-Y billing growth rate. Marketing investments increased slightly in Q3 ahead of the post-Diwali wedding season in North India and were supported by social and content marketing to enhance brand recall. While Y-o-Y marketing expenses remained flat, spending rose by INR5 crores sequentially.
The operating losses on a year-on-year basis reduced by 51% to INR7 crores. The business generated cash from operations of INR80 lakhs in Q3 of FY ’25 versus a cash loss of INR11 crores in Q3 of FY ’24. In the first nine months of this year, matrimony billings grew by 34% to INR79 crores and revenue grew by 30% to INR80 crores. Operating losses were reduced by 81% year-on-year to INR10 crores in the first nine months of FY ’25 versus INR49 crores in the first nine months of FY ’24. Cash loss for the first nine months was INR5 crores, a year-on-year improvement of 89%.
Key operating highlights for the money business. In Q3, the business team continued to build on its monetization efforts to grow billings. The new paid plans introduced in the previous quarters continue to enhance value realization and drive sales conversions. Additionally, more pay walls are being tested to improve monetization while maintaining customer engagement. The team is actively working on developing new strategies to enhance platform monetization while increasing efforts to drive traffic in core North Indian markets. Providing a high-quality matchmaking experience on Jeevansathi remains a top priority. We plan to make further investments in enhancing our matchmaking algorithms to deliver better outcomes for users. Key metrics such as acceptances and two-way chats on the platform continued to grow and demonstrated strong performance.
Moving on to the education business. In Q3 of FY ’24, billing was INR44 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 12% and revenue grew by 3% to INR35 crores. Operating loss on the business was INR1 crore. The business generated a cash from operations of INR15 crores in Q3 of FY ’25. In the first nine months of FY ’25, billings were INR111 crores, a Y-o-Y growth of 13% and revenue grew by 11% to INR111 crores. The business achieved break-even at the operating profit level in the first-nine months and generated INR10 crores in cash from operations.
Within the Shiksha business in the first nine months of FY ’25, the domestic business grew by 26% year-on-year and the study abroad business declined by 16% year-on-year, leading to an overall business growth of 13%. Domestic private universities and colleges continued to expand their course offerings beyond engineering with more choices available to students. The emergence of new private universities in India presents an opportunity for Shiksha to further expand its footprint. We are investing in creating more comprehensive student-friendly content and building deep domain expertise in this segment. Stricter restrictions for study across students in Australia and Canada, higher visa rejection rates for those aspiring study in the U.S. and a decline in job prospects for students abroad have reduced student interest in going overseas.
On the AI front, our current focus is on three AI — key AI priorities; one, number one, enhancing existing products using AI; two, developing new AI-powered features in existing products; and three, building future-ready products. In line with this, we continue to upgrade our database product with AI and machine-learning, resulting in an 8% to 10% increase in recruiter productivity. Similarly, new AI models for job search and recommendations have driven a 10% to 20% year-on-year improvement in in job seeker engagement. As shared on the previous call, AI-powered features like mock interview and resume maker continue to get traction with monthly active usage of 11 lakhs and 12 lakhs users, respectively. Our AI initiatives are increasingly becoming the foundation of our business, driving growth across all verticals, whether recruitment, 99acres, Jeevansathi and Shiksha. In summary, our sustained investment in AI-based innovation is strengthening our competitive edge while delivering greater value to our users and customers.
Moving on to the consolidated financial highlights. At the consolidated level, the net sales of the company stood at INR722 crores in Q3 of FY ’25 versus INR627 crores in Q3 of last year. The total comprehensive income was at INR3,182 crores in Q3 of FY ’25 compared to INR2,624 crores in Q3 of FY ’24. Profit before tax without exceptional items in Q3 was at INR417 crores compared to INR185 crores in Q3 of FY ’24. To summarize and reiterate our mid- to long-term outlook, we are enthusiastic about the growth opportunities across all our verticals. Following several quarters of subdued demand, our recruitment business is now showing sustained growth with growth across all segments; IT, non-IT and consultants. To diversify and expand our client base, we are strengthening our go-to-market offerings and acquiring new clients and focusing on the GCC segment, non-IT sectors and by increasing our presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Our niche and adjacent businesses, iimjobs, Naukri Gulf, Fast forward, Zwayam, DoSelect, Ambition Box and Job Hai are performing well and unlocking new growth opportunities. In 99acres, we are focused on expanding our user base, enhancing the platform and providing valuable content to support informed real estate decisions. We are also developing new offerings aimed at strengthening our secondary business while enhancing our position in the primary new home segment. Jeevansathi’s shift to a premium model has been successful driving top line growth and moving the business closer to break-even. Shiksha’s domestic business remains on a steady growth trajectory and is already profitable.
Across all our businesses, we are advancing the deployment of AI and machine-learning to enhance search and recommendation experience and for the development of new features and products. These efforts have improved user engagement, boosted productivity and increased operational efficiency. Our robust cash generation and healthy cash reserves remain a significant strength, enabling us to navigate market cycles effectively. We continue to evaluate the best strategies to deploy this cash to maximize shareholder returns. We are confident that these efforts position us well for sustained growth and success in the coming years.
Thank you, and we are now ready to take any questions that you may have.
Vineet Ranjan — Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Thank you, Hitesh. Anand, we can start with the questions. I guess we already have few questions in the queue.
Questions and Answers:
Anand Bansal
Yeah. Thank you so much, Hitesh and Vineet. The first question is from Vijit Jain from Citi. Vijit, go-ahead and ask your question.
Vijit Jain
Thanks, Anand. Hi. So, I have two questions. One, thanks for disclosing those data points on billings between IT, non-IT and recruitment firms. Just looking at that data and looking at the Y-o-Y growth there, it looks like the recruitment firms appears to be trailing IT since 2Q ’24, right, six quarters in a row. This is despite non-IT being higher than IT. So it seems like the IT part of recruitment consultants must be seeing a pretty sharp slowdown. Since these are pretty correlated with IT, should we see this leg of the business to meaningfully recover from here? I don’t know if that’s very complicated, but it looks like recruitment consultants is up 10%, IT services is up 17% and non-IT is up 17%. The recruitment should converge with the IT side, right, eventually.
Hitesh Oberoi
So, if IT hiring continues to improve, I’m sure you know or if it gathers more momentum going forward, then recruitment firms which sort of work closely with IT companies should also benefit. And as when that starts to happen, then our business from them should also start looking up.
Vijit Jain
So generally, Hitesh, do you think the direction for the recruitment side — firm side is up or the direction for the IT side is down from here.
Hitesh Oberoi
I have no idea. I have no idea. I mean see, like I have said in the past, see what had happened after COVID was that there was a wave of digitization that led to massive growth in IT hiring and then things slowed down suddenly. And and a lot of companies, including ours was caught napping, we had all over hired and we had built a bench. And then over time, people got rid of their benches, they did not replace people who are leaving. Now at least all of us are at a point where if people leave — we — as long as we want to maintain the headcount we have, we will need to replace them. So, at least replacement hiring has started in all companies. In most companies, campus hiring is also picking up everywhere.
Now, there are of course, a lot of unknowns. There is, a lot will depend on some on how much sort of business picks up for IT companies going forward. So, I don’t know how this will play out. What we have seen over the last few quarters is that our business has — our JobSpeak index, our business has improved quarter-on-quarter from — we were perhaps flat four quarters ago from there, we have now at plus 15% levels, in IT, right. Recruitment growth was negative perhaps four quarters back right. Now, they’re growing at least 9%. So, if this momentum continues, then things will look up from here on.
Vijit Jain
Got it. Thanks. My second question is, just looking at the customer base, there is a double-digit growth there for the first time again in a while. So is, I mean, is that partly benefiting from all those new cities you went into new office openings? Is that playing a role into it? And what is the — if you can talk a little bit about some of these newer customers that you’ve onboarded, if there’s anything different about these?
Hitesh Oberoi
No. So you’re right, see, the economy is growing and there are more companies doing business than earlier and we continue to sort of reach as many companies as we can. We’ve opened new offices, like you said, that’s also helping. We are getting more inquiries online than earlier. So, we have a whole setup to convert all these inquiries into customers over time. So in a growing market, in a growing economy, normally you sort of — customer acquisition also grows, pricing also gets better and existing customers also hire more. So, I would — so the market we are in right now is perhaps a moderate market. It’s neither hot nor cold. It’s a business-as-usual in most areas.
Vijit Jain
Okay, got it. Thank you so much. Those were my questions. Thank you, Hitesh. Thank you, everyone.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Vijit. Next question is from Sachin Salgaonkar from Bank of America. Sachin, go-ahead and ask your question.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Thank you for the opportunity. Congrats on a great set of numbers. My first question is on 99acres. Hitesh, we consistently seen margin improvement out here. It looks like competitive intensity is also not as intense the way it was in the past. Looking at the current trends and some of the new products what you’re looking to launch, is it fair to assume that going ahead, this margin should be in a consistent positive territory. And again, any general thoughts on what could be the steady-state margin in this business?
Hitesh Oberoi
Yeah. So, you hit the nail on the head. You said that competitive intensity does not — it’s my competition seems to be rational, that’s true. That is the case at this point in time. The market is reasonable and we have also done a few things at our end, which have resulted in margin improving. Our marketing has become a lot more efficient than earlier. So, we spent a lot less money on marketing this quarter compared to the — compared to Q2 and were able to get the same kind of growth and this should sustain going forward as well. I can’t predict what competition will do going forward if it remains — Q4 is normally a very good quarter seasonally for us, right? Q3 is in fact the weakest — a weak quarter.
So, if we continue to execute well, competitive intensity remains similar, then Q4 should be good. Now going forward, actually, there are two parts to our business. There is a new home business and there is a resale and rental business. On the resale and rental side, we continue to execute well and that has been the case for now for about seven, eight quarters at least. And we are very happy with the way we are doing in that segment. On the new home side, we are not very happy with our performance. Internally we are working on a few things. But we have not seen the kind of success we would have wanted to see. So, going-forward, if the market remains reasonable and if competition comparative intensity remains reasonable then this year if all goes well, 99acres will on a cash basis will get close — will get close to break-even. And if we are able to grow our business in high-teens next year, then it should make some money, but it’s very hard to say as to how things will play out. Like I said, a lot will depend on what competition does next year.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Got it. Any general thoughts on steady-state margin looking at your peers in other countries?
Hitesh Oberoi
Too early to comment on that, I think.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Fair point. Second question, and clearly, we’re seeing you guys using AI a lot.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
May I just get into that. See, on projected margins for a business like 99acres, it’s got roughly similar cost heads and cost structures as Naukri, marginal sort of differences. So, you’ve got technology, you’ve got servers, you’ve got marketing, you’ve got a sales team and so on, right? And you’ve got head office costs. Right? Now really, similar — and in Naukri, you have variable cost, there is only sales commission, so therefore is 93% gross margin, likewise in 99acres. So really, the question is, will it get similar margin as Naukri? If it gets for the same resource deployment, for the same effort, for the same cost that if it gets the same revenue as Naukri, it will. So, really the uncertainty which they are talking about is that we don’t know how much revenue we’ll get for this resource deployment. And that is the unpredictable point. And therefore, until we are clear on that, we can’t really predict margins.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Thank you, Sanjiv. Pretty clear out there. Moving on to my second question, this is about AI and thanks, Hitesh, for highlighting some of the ways you guys are looking to use AI. Question out here is, let’s say, from the next 12 to 18 month perspective, should we see more benefits on the revenue part with new products being launched or more benefits on the cost side with a bit more efficiency being utilized?
Hitesh Oberoi
See, what we’ve been done successfully over the last few years on the AI front is we have basically improved all our — improved our search, our recommendation engines, our matching algorithms. And as a result of which, take a business like Jeevansathi, the number of acceptances, mutual sort of acceptance on the platform have gone up, right. Similarly, the search experience and the — on Naukri platform is a lot better than earlier. The matching is a lot better. Now, all these things help in the long-run because in the end, what happens as a result of all this is that more people get hired or more people find matches through your platform and somewhere this is correlated to revenue, right?
So, one can’t say like listen, this is having a direct impact on revenue because we don’t charge on this basis and it’s not a new offering. It’s not a new product. But as your platforms become smarter, becomes more efficient, as more people get hired through you or more houses get bought through you or more people get married through you, somewhere it does reflect in revenue. So, this is something which we have been doing for a while now and we’ve been very successful at. Now, of course, we are also trying to develop new features and new products using AI and data. For example, sometime back, we launched a talent pulse offering in Naukri and since then we’ve expanded the suite of products, data products we have. Now, we do get revenue from the — some revenue from this suite of products we took to market a couple of years ago. And we are working on building new products as well. But on new products, it’s very hard to predict whether they will be successful or not when we take them to market. So, efforts are on. But the other piece, which is using AI to become more efficient, using AI to become faster, using AI to enhance existing offerings, that agenda will continue.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Okay. So, your consol margins should continue to move up, right, because of the AI-led initiatives going ahead?
Hitesh Oberoi
Sorry, which margin?
Sachin Salgaonkar
Standalone margins.
Hitesh Oberoi
Standalone margins, in existing offerings, yeah, as long as you’re able to get revenue growth. Because revenue growth is also a function of the market and competition and many other things. Are we getting more efficient at delivering the same stuff? Yes.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Thanks, again. And my last question is on GCCs. On-the-ground checks do indicate that in last six to nine months, we are seeing some good hiring happening around GCCs. And by the looks of it, the trend does indicate that the hiring out here is picking up. Directionally, I know this was a relatively smaller opportunity as compared to some of the IT services and others. But has this a potential of becoming much bigger than what it was in the past from an opportunity perspective.
Hitesh Oberoi
So yes and I’ll tell you why, because see — of course, it will depend on how fast GCCs grow and how big they become. See, GCCs when they are small, they don’t use us. So, when they set-up shop in the country, for the first couple of years, both GCC start small, they may start with 50, 100 people, then over-time scale-up to 200, 300. Till then, they don’t really depend on us for hiring. It’s when they start scaling up is when they start using platforms like Naukri a lot more. In the beginning, most of the hiring is done through head hunting firms and the likes. So, now the biggest GCCs in the country maybe employ 50,000 people and then there are a bunch of small GCCs in the country, which have maybe 50, 100, 200, 300, 500 people.
Now, so if the GCC market continues to grow rapidly and more importantly, existing GCC start to grow rapidly, right, the ones who are at 100, if they want to go to 1,000, the ones who are at 2,000 try and go to 10,000, decide to go to 10,000, then that will really benefit our business, number one. Number two, so the point I was making is not so much the number of GCCs, it’s how much the existing GCCs are likely to scale going-forward, which matters more in the short-term for us. Secondly, see, what we have seen is and I did talk about this a little bit, we have revamped and relaunched our branding offerings and we are seeing good traction in the market. And so now see, there are lots of companies who are setting up shop and they’re not known in the Indian market. So, give or take a couple of hundred companies. I don’t think people know that what the other companies out there do. So, we believe that GCCs will want to — at least the new GCCs want to invest in brand building, they will want to invest in generating — creating awareness about who they are, what they do, because they will want to attract good talent going forward. So that is another opportunity which we see emerging in the medium-term.
Sachin Salgaonkar
Thanks clear. Got it. Thank you. All the best.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Sachin. Next question is from Vivekanand from Ambit Capital. Vivek, go-ahead and ask your question.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Sorry, I was on-mute for a — hi, am I audible?
Anand Bansal
Yes. Go-ahead.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Hitesh, first question is on AI. I know you spoke about the good side of AI, but is there any tension that you get from AI or LLMs being disruptive to e-recruitment because your current model is on rupees per resume monetization. I mean it is — it is solutions-oriented, but there’s still an element of card rate and you giving discounts and people searching through the database. Now what if the way technology evolves doesn’t require the number of searches that are currently needed, number of CV views. So that’s question one. And the second question is for —
Hitesh Oberoi
Sorry, carry-on. Yeah.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Yeah, maybe I can ask that later you answer it, please. Go-ahead.
Hitesh Oberoi
No, you’re absolutely right. See, AI is an opportunity. And of course, if we are not able to capitalize on the opportunity and somebody else does a better job, then you know existing business models could get disrupted. So far we haven’t seen anything which worries us. We worry more about the impact of AI on jobs, which could impact our business, right? But that again is a debatable topic. Some people think AI will result in more jobs getting created, some people feel AI will result in jobs going away. So, I don’t have an answer to that question. But on the technology side, AI can be disruptive and we are of course, investing aggressively to see how we can leverage it for our benefit. Business models could evolve over-time, so as the technology was and that’s something we are also — we constantly think about.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Okay. That’s helpful. Sanjeev, just on the current, another INR1,000 crore investment that is being planned in the AIFs. How much of your total INR3,400 crore investment committed by the AIFs has been deployed? How many startups have been incubated across the three AIFs. And is there any thought given to recycling capital from your prior successful investments or even the AIFs themselves, which some of which are quite mature?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
So I’ll tell you. So, a rough math is about 40 plus — I think 28 plus, I think 20, the three AIFs would be about maybe 90 to 100 companies, maybe 90, approximately, these are rough numbers. I’m doing the math in my head as I go along. And then there are the balance sheet investments. There are another seven, eight companies there and then there is RedStart, which is another, I think [Indecipherable] companies. So maybe you’re [Indecipherable] companies that have — we’ve done in the past and have gone under. So, I would say — and then there are the strategic investments, which I’m not counting here, right?
So, I would say non-strategic investments total would be ever done from 2007 onwards, whether through AIF or balance sheet or subsidiaries, would be in the region of 120 plus approximately. These are the rough math, don’t hold me to these numbers. Do we look at recycling? Yes, we do. But you see the point is that it’s as and when exits happen. And early-stage investing and we’d like to be first traction companies. Early-stage investing often takes eight, 10, 12 years to sort of mature and give you a possibility of an exit, right? At the same time, we like to hold on as long as possible as long as there’s enough growth and momentum in the company as is the case in Zomato and PolicyBazaar. Because what we also believe fundamentally is that if you have an investment in a company, you possibly have a future. If you exit and take out cash, you’ve only got cash and cash has no future other than 6%. At the same time, we could lose money if you make the wrong investments, we are cognizant of that fact. So yeah, we are aware, we are conscious, we continue to invest. The operating business generates money. Some of that goes into investments and much of it does not.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Okay, great. That’s helpful.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Second, I’ll tell you. See, we typically when we do an AIF, roughly about 40% to 50% of the investable capital, is earmarked for first checks into companies. The remaining 50% or 60% is for follow-on offering — follow-on investments in the same companies. So, when we run-out of first check money, which is within three to four years of launching an AIF, typically, maybe three years, that is when we — that is when we launch a new AIF. So, it’s not as if the older funds don’t have money. They have money, but that’s earmarked for follow-ons in the whole portfolio.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Yeah. Okay. And did I get the timing right? The first checks are typically deployed in two to three years of the AIF being launched and then subsequent funding happens as capital costs have?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Maybe three years, sometimes four years, but within three years, yes, typically.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Okay, great. That’s helpful. Last question, Hitesh, on the non-IT recruitment revenue opportunity. From your vantage point, how big a revenue pool is there for you in the non-IT recruitment segment? I know you have mentioned in the past that there are discounts that you gave, which are perhaps necessary for you to penetrate that market, acquire more users. You also mentioned that there’s a lot of self-serve activity happening that people are logging on to your portal and becoming customers of Naukri directly. So, can you walk us through how big can non-IT recruitment be in, let’s say, dollar terms or let’s say, in terms of size of revenue pool five years, 10 years from now?
Hitesh Oberoi
The non-IT revenues approximately 50%, 52% of our revenue in Naukri, the revenue we get from non-IT customers. Suppose in terms of number of customers, it’s a — they’re much larger. ARPUs are lower, but and see, what we’ve seen in the past is that whenever the economy grows sustainably at 6%, 6.5% for a prolonged period, we are — have been able to grow our revenue at 20% plus from the non-IT because non-IT is more indexed to the domestic economy as opposed to IT, which is more indexed to what happens globally, right. So that’s what we’ve seen in the past. So, if the domestic economy continues to grow at 6%, 6.5% per annum unless we get new competition, unless something changes, historically, we’ve sort of seen that business is able to grow at 20% plus. Partly, like I said, it’s because of new customer addition, partly because we are able to get take price increases in a hot market and partly it is because existing customers have — there’s more volume. So that’s what we’ve seen in the past.
Now this assumes that nothing much changes in the world outside. So competitive situation remains the same. We don’t launch new products and so on and so forth. So I mean, so you can do the math, right? I mean, five years from now, if the Indian economy continues to grow at 6%, 7% per annum, then this is what is likely to happen. Of course, with AI, we’re trying to launch new features, new products, we’re trying to make the platform more efficient. In the past, I’ve always said that our platform is not as efficient for non-IT hiring as it is for IT hiring. So, there is an opportunity there if we can sort of fix some of those things and we continue to work on those pieces.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Okay. Very helpful. Just one last doubt that I had on the JobSpeak disclosures. So, the JobSpeak data now captures the indexed searches as well by recruiters, right? And typically searches translate into resume views, which then straightaway is accounted for in the database revenue that you have, right? So ideally, the disclosures now, the JobSpeak that we get now should correlate more to recruitment billing, right? But what we see is that the recruitment billing tends to grow much faster or maybe is much less volatile than JobSpeak. Why is that so and what are the other variables here that JobSpeak isn’t yet capturing.
Hitesh Oberoi
So one, of course, you’re right, a lot of the recruitment activity on the core Naukri platform is getting captured in JobSpeak a lot better than earlier, right? But in addition to this, like I mentioned in the call, we have all these new products and services, adjacent businesses, which have nothing to do with JobSpeak, whether if we are growing in the Gulf or if high-risk platform grows faster in a particular quarter or if iimjobs does better or if the candidate services business grows faster, that is not getting — or if our branding solutions, for example, even on the core Naukri platform are growing faster than the main business and that will not get reflected in JobSpeak, right?
Pricing increases. Now, let me — in a hot market, it’s easy to take a pricing, it’s easier to take pricing up. On the other hand, the opposite can happen in a slow market. So, if the jobs — if JobSpeak starts to move or up, climb rapidly, then actually I mean, theoretically, it should be possible for us to take price increases as well, right? And the reverse may happen if on the way down. So, it’s — there is a — I’m sure there is some correlation, but it’s not — but there are many other factors as well, which impact billing in a particular quarter.
Vivekanand Subbaraman
Understood. Thanks a lot for elaborate answers to my questions and all the very best.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Vivek. Next question is from Ankur Rudra from JPMorgan. Ankur, go-ahead and ask your question.
Ankur Rudra
Yeah. Thank you. The first question is, if you can just maybe if you covered it already, I may have missed it. The IT billings growth number of 16%, how much of this came from the GCCs versus the IT companies this time? Was there a particular trend on one side versus the other?
Hitesh Oberoi
You pick it up like that because GCC hiring also includes non-IT hiring. So, it’s hard for us to figure out and we don’t give that, we don’t do that cut right now.
Ankur Rudra
But from a flavor perspective is one stronger than the other? Are you seeing one segment…
Hitesh Oberoi
Yeah, anecdotally, what I can tell you is that GCCs are perhaps growing faster for us, but we haven’t looked at the numbers.
Ankur Rudra
And Hitesh, are these larger GCCs that have begun to hire now in a big way or are these newer GCCs?
Hitesh Oberoi
Yes, yes. So a lot of the large GCCs had frozen hiring. So, some of them have started hiring again.
Ankur Rudra
Okay. Thank you. If the growth momentum continues the way it is, we haven’t really had meaningful amount of price increases for the last couple of years. Is there a chance we might take a meaningful price increase in calendar ’25?
Hitesh Oberoi
Only if the market — only if we have a hot market for hiring. We are more likely to focus on customer acquisition in the core Naukri business on growing our adjacent sort of businesses faster, higher penetration for those products. If the job market becomes hotter than it is today, talent becomes hard to get, then that makes it easier for us to take price increases.
Ankur Rudra
Okay. Thank you. Last question is on the new fund, is there any change in the mandated focus versus the previous funds?
Hitesh Oberoi
Sanjeev, that’s for you.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
No, it’s still early-stage tech.
Ankur Rudra
Okay. No change in terms of what you’ll go after within early-stage tech also?
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Well, within early-stage will depend on the market is like. The way we do it is, we don’t do it top-down, we do it bottom-up. We meet a few hundred companies, we look at a few hundred companies a quarter and then decide to invest in two or three. So, we’ll see what’s — we’ll look at what’s bubbling up from underneath and then we’ll take a call. But in general, a few trends are kind of emerging. I think it’s pretty clear that AI is going everywhere. So, no matter which sector, which company you invest in, there will be an element of AI in there.
Ankur Rudra
Appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Ankur. Next question is from Nikhil Choudhary from Nuvama. Nikhil, go-ahead and ask your question.
Nikhil Choudhary
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Hitesh, first one on the recruitment side. We have seen some data point basically, especially on JobSpeak, some slowdown, especially on the IT hiring. The data for last two, three months had been quite muted compared to the acceleration we were seeing in earlier months. And second, on non-IT side, while most of the company are calling out some slowdown due to macro and other stuff, we have seen our non-IT remain very resilient, right? So, just color on overall demand outlook, especially for Q4, which is one of the most important quarter for us. And Hitesh, we had a favorable base for first nine months, right, while Q4 won’t be the same. We saw acceleration in Q4 of the last year. So, do you think demand continued to improve and we would be able to deliver the, let’s say, mid-teen double-digit growth or even higher in coming quarters?
Hitesh Oberoi
Well, let me answer the second question first. Q4 is a seasonally strong quarter, but Q4 last year was weak as well, right? So, it’s not as if we have a high base. The base is high because of seasonality, not because Q4 last year was a great quarter. So, as far as your question on hiring, see, non-IT, it’s very sectoral. There are some sectors that are doing well and some sectors which are perhaps not growing as fast. On the whole, business is okay, right? It’s not — it’s not like I was saying that it’s not a great market, but it’s not a bad market either, right? It’s a — somewhere in the middle.
As far as IT is concerned, you’re right, we saw some recovery. And after that things have stabilized. It’s not as if things moved up — have continued to sort of move-up month-on month. Having said so, it’s a very volatile world, it’s very unpredictable. Things change very quickly, especially in some sectors. For the first — for example, for the first three weeks of this quarter, IT, every — all hiring was slow, but the last two weeks have been good, right? I mean, unless I’m looking at the number of jobs, et cetera on the platform and commenting on. Now, will it sustain going-forward, who knows there, right? So, I don’t know. I mean it’s a little unpredictable. On the whole, it seems like the market is stable. It’s not neither moving up nor not going down from where it was three months back. The world looks right now, at least.
Nikhil Choudhary
Got it. Second one bit on medium-term. We have seen IT companies for the first time this quarter talking about the Gen AI efficiency is finally coming and they expect finally they will have disconnect between hiring and revenue growth, while for the last decade, it was broadly the same despite of AI. But — and more or less for the first time, there is a comment that they will — this will lead to change in the business model, revenue per employee going up compared to employee addition. Do you think we also need to reinvent or might need to change our business model, especially in light with Gen AI efficiency coming in one of the biggest market for us.
Hitesh Oberoi
We are trying to do — you see, we have been investing in AI for a while now and earlier it was classical machine-learning and now it is more Gen AI as well. We are also looking at agent AI and to see what we can do with it. So one is, of course, we are trying to make our processes more efficient, our processes faster. In some areas, we are managing with fewer people, in other areas, we are trying to get people to deliver faster. What used to take six months, can it be done in two months, three months. In other areas, we are seeing opportunity and we are hiring people to benefit from those opportunities, which AI has made possible, which were perhaps not possible earlier, things which are not possible earlier.
So, where will we end-up as a result of all this, I don’t know, right? And also I guess where Indian IT companies will also end-up will — it could be a function of where they see opportunity, how much they want to invest in those opportunities. And of course, there’ll be some areas where they’ll become more efficient as well. So, that’s the — I mean that’s my feeling. I mean, did I miss anything? Did I answer your question or —
Nikhil Choudhary
Yeah, yeah, Hitesh broadly. I agree. Sir, just last point in terms of — while I agree what Sanjiv said that it’s difficult to predict the margin of business like 99acres. Just want to understand you as a management would like to keep margin of non-recruitment business at, let’s say, break-even level or internally, you would like to focus on making it further more profitable?
Hitesh Oberoi
So, see, the way we operate is we look at where we can invest, right? We look for ideas, we look for opportunities and then we try and make those ideas happen, those opportunities happen. Like for example, we are investing aggressively behind our blue-collar business now. I mean, we are investing more-and-more with every passing year. We started monetizing it a few months back and we are losing a lot of money right now, but we see an opportunity. So, we are likely to increase our investment going forward in the blue-collar business, knowing very well that it will not generate a lot of revenue in the short-term.
Similarly in 99acres, there are areas where we see opportunity we’re going to invest a lot more than we were earlier, investing earlier. We will not be irrational. Like I said, it’s more idea-driven, it’s more insight-driven. And the margin that we will end-up with is going to be a function of what revenue growth is going to be like after making these investments, which is harder to predict, right? So that’s how we operate. Now would we want to make money in the business? Of course, we would want to make money, would we want to make it a high margins, of course, we want to get high margins, but not if we think it is going to hurt the business in the long-run.
Nikhil Choudhary
Got it, Hitesh. Thanks a lot. And good luck for coming period.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Nikhil. Next question is from Abhishek Banerjee from ICICI Securities. Abhishek, go-ahead and ask your question.
Abhisek Banerjee
Yeah, hi. Yeah. Again, thanks for improving the quality of disclosures every single quarter. The new presentation is really helpful. Most of my questions have been answered. Just had a couple of bookkeeping type questions. One is, if you see the nine months of FY ’25, what would you see as the realization — average realization improvement from per client vis-a-vis how much has come of addition of new clients in terms of recruitment revenues?
Vineet Ranjan
Yeah. So, Abhisek, so we don’t disclose it for the intermediate period. We normally do it for the full-year. But like Hitesh has mentioned in the previous calls as well, in the first nine months in the earlier quarters, it will be mostly driven by volume than by ARPU growth.
Abhisek Banerjee
Understood. Understood. But see, I was trying to understand, last year, Hitesh had actually called out that despite not taking price increases per se, there was a realization improvement which happened because companies were hiring more senior people, right? So is that trend still continuing? That is what I was actually trying to get to.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
We don’t get more revenue because somebody hires a senior person versus a junior person, right? So that doesn’t change. I mean, unless I’m something — unless I’m getting something wrong, Hitesh.
Hitesh Oberoi
So, see we have value conversations with customers and we have analytics around how much they potentially benefits from the platform that helps us negotiate with them in our negotiation. It’s not as a price like that. So, but at a very — at a macro-level, this year, we have grown the number of customers also. We have seen volume growth also and pricing growth has been a very, very modest.
Abhisek Banerjee
Okay, understood. And one more point is that we saw a exceptional loss of about INR60 crores, which was mentioned on account of something moving from being a subsidiary to an investment instrument. So, why the loss was recognized? I mean, is there a down ground which happened. If you just could explain that, but.
Vineet Ranjan
Yeah. I think if I understood the question correctly, you are referring to the impairment that we have done and we have shown it as an exceptional item in this quarter. So that represents one of the subsidiary company that we have, which has the brand Coding Ninja. And when we invested, we had certain expectations and at that point in time the valuation of ed-tech companies were very different than what it is now. Although the company is actually doing well in terms of narrowing the cash burn as well as they are growing Y-o-Y, 30% plus. So although, they seem to be doing well, but as compared to the projections that we had at the time we invested versus what it is today, I think there is a gap in the value of the asset that we are carrying in our accounts. That’s why in consultation with auditors and following the conservative prudence and principles of conservativism, we have chosen to impair to the extent we thought that value looks more realistic to where it stands.
Abhisek Banerjee
Understood.
Vineet Ranjan
So Abhishek, just to add, regarding your point on reclassification of one company from a JV to financial investment, that was not this quarter that happened last quarter, that was for quarter two for [Indecipherable] where an external investor came in and we became — instead of like majority shareholder, we got diluted. So, it was for the previous quarter, not this quarter.
Abhisek Banerjee
Got it, got it. And in terms of the demand outlook in the recruitment business. So, if you look at the total number of headcounts in the top IT firms, about the Top 10 IT firms, in FY ’24, probably our number has gone down about 4% odd, right? And there was a lot of stuff written there. And I mean, in terms of improvements from AI, people have often quoted a number of about 20% improvement in that efficiency. So, do you really see there’s more room for jobs should be cut if AI improvements continue or do you think it was just the case of…
Hitesh Oberoi
Our IT services companies. See, I don’t know. I mean to each his own and I can’t comment on what — how different companies are going to navigate this. You know, GCCs have been talking about their headcount growing because that’s a very different ball game. Jobs are moving from overseas to India. AI is also creating opportunities. So, it depends on how much you want to sort of leverage those opportunities. There are many companies. If big tech companies be cutting headcount in some area, they are hiring in other areas. So that’s also happening. So, it’s difficult and see our revenue is a function of gross hiring, not net hiring, right? So, if attrition rates move up, for some reason, that also benefits us, right? So, even though the company stays at the same headcount, but the attrition rate starts to climb, for some reason, it could be that GCC start hiring from IT services companies and IT services companies are forced to replace the people who are leaving, okay. That also helps us because it’s a function of gross hiring and not net hiring.
Abhisek Banerjee
Understood. Understood. Perfect. That’s very helpful. Thank you so much.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Abhishek. Next question is from Amit Chandra from HDFC Securities. Amit, go-ahead and ask your question. And since we have any questions in queue, so maybe you may ask one question.
Amit Chandra
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So thanks for the opportunity. So my question is on the on the recruitment segment. So obviously, you have mentioned that you’re investing in the platform, which is a blue collar hiring platform, which is Job Hai and Ambition Box. So as of now, in terms of the revenue contribution, what is the contribution of Job Hai, Ambition Box in terms of overall revenue and billings. And also we are seeing that the billings growth for the iimjobs, the Naukri Gulf and Naukri Fast Forward is much higher than what we are having at the consolidated level in the recruitment segment. So, if you can elaborate more in terms of what are the opportunities we see in the — like medium-term here. And also you mentioned about lot of AI being offered. So, in terms of the pricing impact, how we are seeing the AI impacting pricing from the pricing perspective. So, the increase in the realization that we’re seeing is mostly AI-led.
Hitesh Oberoi
Yeah. So, Job Hai and Ambition Box, they are very small today. If we just started monetizing them this year. So this year, our revenue from a Job Hai plus Ambition Box will be less than maybe INR20 crore, INR25 crores in total, right? So, these are very tiny platforms, but they are very strategic for us in the long-run and we will continue to invest behind them. Job Hai, this is the first year of monetization and Ambition Box, again, we’ve been — we’ve started monetizing only a few months back. There is a core Naukri business and there are these adjacent sort of verticals like iimJobs, Hirist, Fast Forward, Naukri Gulf, etc., etc.
Together, I think they account for about 20% of our collections in — or in that ballpark in the recruitment business. In some of these verticals, some of these verticals have been growing faster than the core business because the core business was very slow for a few first few quarters. And in these — in some of these verticals, not in all of them because the Fast Forward business, for example, is more job seeker-oriented. There is a penetration game also which is still playing out. So, it’s not as if we are unlike the Naukri business where penetration levels are very high. Here in some of these verticals, penetration levels are low. So, we are trying to get more and more customers on to our platform as well. So, we want these I mean, at least we will aspire to and want to grow these adjacent sort of verticals at a faster clip than the core Naukri business.
As far as AI concerned, AI is basically mostly being sort of deployed on the core Naukri platform, right? And if we are — and if you do a good job, then what should happen as a result of that deployment is that our platform should become more efficient and more effective. And if companies were — all things else remaining the same, if companies were hiring maybe 40 out of 100 people through our platform earlier, we should be able to take this number from 40 to 45 or 50, number one. Number two, we should be able to help them save time as well that — and get them to hire people faster because they should be able to find the right candidates faster.
Now, this is a journey, okay. It’s not as if we change the algorithm and things start to work. We have to keep iterating, keep testing, keep deploying new stuff, see what’s working, what’s not working, we get feedback, we change things, etc., etc. But we have been investing and we’ve seen some good results. So, as pricing is concerned, we are not charging an extra — charging extra for AI, right, right now. We are offering it to everybody. And what I have — like I said earlier, it’s not easy — we’ve seen at least over time is that it’s not easy to take prices up in a regular market. We can get your 3%, 4% increase. It’s hard to get more than that in a regular market. In a slow market, of course, you end up discounting. Once the market starts to improve, the hiring market and then it’s possible to take hire increases.
Amit Chandra
Okay. And, my last question on the 99acres platform. Obviously, we are seeing improvement in terms of billing and the profitability there. But what’s actually missing there because we are seeing the best phase of the real estate market. But despite that, we have not been able to like monetize on that. And still the — still the — I know the billings from like — from the new listing is not up there as we would have intended to be. So, what’s not working out there?
Hitesh Oberoi
So, let me just bring this up to you. So, at a very high level, there is a new home market and there is a secondary market — and within secondary, including the rental market. So, the resale and rental market continues to do well for us and our business has been growing at a reasonably healthy rate and we are perhaps gaining share in that segment as well. But it’s less than half our business, right? The new home market, has been hot and within the new home market, there is a new launch market, which is perhaps what you’re referring to and there is a regular sort of sale of under-construction homes market projects, which were launched maybe a year-ago, two years ago, three years ago. We don’t really have a very big play in or a good product to offer — which we offer in the new launch space. So that market is actually currently not with us. It’s with Facebook, it’s with Instagram, it’s with Google.
We have very tiny share, not just us, but every real-estate — all real-estate portals have a very tiny share of that market. We are working hard to see how we can increase our share of that market. And within that market also where we have seen a flurry of activity is in premium housing. In fact, affordable housing has been slow, right, throughout the country, okay? It’s not as if the affordable housing market is very hot. It’s actually perhaps easier to launch and sell INR5 crore apartments than it is to sell an apartment for INR70 lakhs, INR80 lakhs, INR1 crore right now, right? So, it’s a — you know, I know there’s a lot of buzz around real estate and prices have moved up and so on in some markets and so on. But it’s not as if every segment of that market is doing well. We continue to do well in the secondary market. We continue to do well in under construction homes. We have still a long way to go before we crack the new launch market, which is where the big tech companies do really well and distributing very quickly.
Amit Chandra
Yeah, understood. Thank you. Thank you and all the best for the quarter.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Amit. Next question is from Ullas Goyal [Phonetic]. Ullas, go-ahead and ask your question.
Unidentified Participant
Just a quick question for me. On the 99acres business, if you see the pace of the quarterly run-rate of the revenue or the billings, it’s been pretty steady over quarter-over-quarter, but profitability has improved substantially. So, could you flesh out what has led to that improvement? Where have you pulled the levers?
Hitesh Oberoi
Yeah. So two, three things. One, our costs — our manpower cost has stayed — has been under control, manpower cost has been under control, a lot of big platform work is already done and now of course we are improving things, but a lot of the investments have already been made. And similarly on the operation side, on the sales side, I mean, it’s not as if we’re adding a lot of headcount. And I don’t think we need to add a lot of headcount if the platform can deliver better going-forward and we can keep adding revenue growth. So there’s high operating leverage, number-one. Number two, our marketing has become a lot more efficient. And of course, early days and this — we saw some encouraging results to — in Q3 and we have to see whether that sustains going-forward. But the platform is able to deliver a lot more inquiries and leads than earlier with lower marketing spend today than was perhaps the case six months ago. So that’s also helping.
Unidentified Participant
Sure. Thanks a lot.
Vineet Ranjan
We’ll take last two questions now.
Anand Bansal
Salil, you can go in and ask your question. Salil from Barclays.
Salil Desai
So my question is for. You mentioned that the impairment clarification were two things. The business itself is doing well, but values will be down and that is why there is an impairment. Now just help me understand we did not have recognized this anywhere at-market value, right? So where does ed-tech valuations changing…
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
See, when at early-stage, you go by potential promise and projections, right? Now if it becomes apparent that those projections are not going to be met in the near-term at least, right and you had well with high and there has been general correction in the ed-tech market valuations then a true and fair conservative basis you discuss with your auditors and they tell you to impair it and then you impair it. And that’s how it is. Am I right, Chintan?
Chintan Arvind Thakkar
That’s correct.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Okay. We don’t argue a lot with the auditors. We mostly listen to them
Salil Desai
Okay. I am not 100%, but I’ll take it up separately, but…
Chintan Arvind Thakkar
If I just add little bit, Salil, if that helps you that whatever is the DCF valuation that we do and then there is certain multiple that is being used and certain comparable cases that are being used. And those comparable cases when we made investment three years ago versus what the comparable cases and their respective valuations or what the new rounds of dilution happening in private and public market, I think they are very different. So all that goes into the calculation or the judgment that auditor will help you — helps us with. And basis that like Sanjeev said that on a very prudent basis, on a very conservative basis, we take the most conservative view of what is true.
Salil Desai
Okay. Thank you.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Salil. Hitesh, there are questions in the Q&A box. This is from Nitin Jain from UTI AMC.
The first question is, any plans to enter into new lines of business given that, that is strength either organically or through acquisitions.
Hitesh Oberoi
See jobs, real-estate, matrimony/dating and education, these are the lines of business we are currently in, it’s very unlikely that we will add a new category in the next few months, but never say never, who knows what is going to happen a year or two down the line. So, yeah.
Anand Bansal
And then another point he has made is between and Naukri, iimjobs, Zwayam and DoSelect and Hirist, what would your take beyond them cannibalizing each other to some extent?
Hitesh Oberoi
So, see some of these are — like, Zwayam, DoSelect, et cetera are software platforms. They won’t compete with Naukri at all, okay. IIMJobs is our play in the premium MBA space, right? And the reason we acquired iimjobs is because yes, some premium MBA hiring also happens to Naukri, but iimjobs is perhaps a stronger player in that segment. Very little cannibalization there in our view. Job Hai is a blue-collar platform. Again, that’s not a segment Naukri is very strong in. It’s not as a lot of blue collar hiring happens to Naukri, which is why we are actually building a product in that space. Now at the edges at the — there could be some over time, who knows, but they are actually different products and they’re targeting very different segments. Their positioning is different, the proposition is different, often the customer base is different, the user base is different. And that’s how we are approaching them right now.
Anand Bansal
Thanks, Hitesh.
Vineet Ranjan
That was it on the question side. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. We now conclude this conference call. You may now disconnect the lines.
Hitesh Oberoi
Thank you and have a great evening.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Anand Bansal
Thank you so much everyone.