SANJEEV BIKHCHANDANI
Founding Naukri.com and Info Edge — building India's first great internet company before anyone believed Indian internet was real
Sanjeev Bikhchandani built India's first profitable internet company from a servant's quarter in Delhi before Indian internet was real, survived seven years of near-bankruptcy, and then made a $3 million bet on Zomato that turned into billions. He is the original proof that patient, unsexy, category-dominant internet businesses compound into extraordinary wealth. India's greatest internet founder that most people outside India have never heard of.
Net Worth
$3B
Nationality
Indian
Time Horizon
Generational
Risk Appetite
6 / 10
Net Worth Context
- · Still a billionaire — just the quiet kind at the end of the table.
CAREER & BACKGROUND
Sanjeev Bikhchandani started Info Edge from his servant's quarter in Delhi in 1990 — before the internet existed in India commercially. He spent seven years building a print jobs publication, burning through savings, surviving on virtually no revenue.
When the internet arrived in India in the late 1990s, he launched Naukri.com — India's first major job portal. He listed Info Edge on the stock exchange in 2006 in India's first profitable internet IPO.
Today Info Edge has a market cap of over $6 billion and owns Naukri, Jeevansathi (matrimony), 99acres (real estate), and Shiksha (education). It also made one of the greatest venture investments in Indian startup history: an early bet on Zomato that turned a $3 million investment into billions when Zomato went public in 2021.
COMPANIES & ROLES
Info Edge (India) — Founder, Executive Vice Chairman. Naukri.com — Founded 1997.
Zomato — Early investor ($3M early investment returned billions at IPO). Policybazaar — Early investor.
Jeevansathi — Founded. 99acres — Founded
INVESTING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY
Patient capital + internet network effects. Bikhchandani's strategy is to identify categories where network effects matter — jobs, matrimony, real estate — and build dominant portals in those categories before anyone else.
He also makes early-stage investments in Indian internet companies and holds for very long periods. His Zomato investment is the canonical case: small check, long hold, transformational return.
THE PLAYBOOK
Risk Approach
5
Money Habits
Famous for extreme frugality during Info Edge's early years — lived below his means for a decade while building the company. Still relatively low-profile for a $3 billion man.
Mentor to hundreds of Indian entrepreneurs. One of the most respected figures in Indian startup culture.
BIGGEST WIN
The Zomato investment. Info Edge put roughly $3 million into Zomato across early rounds.
At Zomato's 2021 IPO (valuing the company at $13 billion), that stake was worth several billion dollars. It is one of the greatest venture returns in Indian startup history — from a job portal company that became an accidental VC.
BIGGEST MISTAKE
The first 7 years of Info Edge were brutal. Bikhchandani nearly ran out of money multiple times.
His marriage strained under the financial pressure. He kept going when any rational person would have stopped — which was ultimately the right call, but it required an irrational level of conviction.
FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Find categories where network effects give you permanent competitive advantage. Build them patiently.
The market will be larger and take longer than you expect. Survive until then.
FAMILY & PERSONAL LIFE
Married to Surabhi Bikhchandani. Two children.
EDUCATION
Bachelor's degree in Economics, St. Stephen's College, Delhi.
MBA, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
BOOKS & RESOURCES
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QUOTES (5)
I spent seven years with no revenue and a wife who had every reason to doubt me. I kept going because I had no good reason to stop.
Network effects are the most powerful force in business. Find the category where they apply and build before anyone believes it matters.
We put $3 million into Zomato. It was not the most sophisticated investment thesis. We believed in Deepinder and we believed in the category. Sometimes that is enough.
Indian internet took 10 years longer than everyone expected. The founders who survived until it arrived became very wealthy. The ones who gave up did not.
Build the boring category that everyone needs but nobody wants to fund. That is where the best businesses in India have been built.
NETFIGO SCORE
Proprietary 5-dimension investor rating
Risk Appetite
Contrarian Index
Track Record
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Related Profiles
Investors
Deepinder Goyal
Info Edge was Zomato's first major investor — Bikhchandani backed Deepinder Goyal early
Karthik Reddy
Bikhchandani is a prominent Indian internet founder and startup investor.
N. R. Narayana Murthy
Fellow Indian tech entrepreneur who built a category-defining company with patient capital
Sanjay Nath
Indian startup founder turned prolific angel investor, part of the network of early backers alongside Blume.
Head-to-Head
Compare Sanjeev Bikhchandani vs another investor.