Info Edge puts in $240K more in Canvera to buy shares from angel investors, ups stake to 27%

Info Edge (India), which runs a slew of consumer Internet portals including Naukri.com, has bought Rs 1.5 crore ($239,385) worth of shares of online photography startup Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd from a few unnamed angel investors, providing them with an exit.

With the fresh investment, Info Edge's total exposure to Canvera has risen to Rs 43.5 crore and it now holds around 27 per cent per cent stake in the company (on a fully converted and diluted basis), up from around 26 per cent as of December 2013.

Two months ago it disclosed that the firm has infused Rs 4.5 crore more in Canvera. That investment was done through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares. Originally, Info Edge had picked 23 per cent effective stake for Rs 35.4 crore, which would have put a valuation of around Rs 150 crore on Canvera. Early last year, it hiked its stake to 25 per cent and its total exposure rose to Rs 37.5 crore.

Canvera has raised a total of approximately Rs 74.5 crore to date. The company had earlier raised$6.5 million in Series B round of funding from Info Edge in Aug 2012. Before that, it had raised funding from Footprint Ventures, DFJ and Mumbai Angels.

Founded by Dhiraj Kacker and Peeyush Rai in 2008 as a web-enabled photobook company, Canvera forayed into associated e-commerce in March 2011. The company is engaged in the business of providing solutions to professional photographers via its website Canvera.com. It prints photo books, provides design services and also offers hosted software solutions for photographers (the SaaS model).

Headquartered in Bangalore, the company also has regional offices in seven cities across the country – in Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

Info Edge had reported a 16 per cent rise in revenue, which stood at Rs 123.3 crore for the three months ended December 31, 2013, over the year-ago period. Net profit rose by just 4.5 per cent to Rs 32.2 crore in the same period. Sequentially, revenue was flat while net profit declined and EBITDA margin shrank. These are standalone numbers and do not include financials of subsidiaries running sites such as Meritnation, PolicyBazaar and Zomato.

Other Info Edge investments

Info Edge invested Rs 10 crore ($1.6 million) more in Applect Learning Systems, which runs an online education and assessment venture through Meritnation in Dec 2013. With the fresh investment, Info Edge's total exposure to Applect has risen to Rs 71.5 crore and it holds around 55.81 per cent stake in Applect (on a fully diluted and converted basis).

Prior to that, Gurgaon-based Zomato Media Pvt Ltd (formerly DC Foodiebay Online Services Pvt Ltd), which owns the popular restaurant and event-listing and review site Zomato, had raised a Rs 227.6 crore ($37 million) investment round led by Sequoia Capital. Existing investor and majority shareholder, Info Edge also participated in the round. Zomato was valued at around Rs 1,000 crore in that round.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)