Naukri parent Info Edge backs Diro Labs, Unnati Helpers

Info Edge (India) Ltd has invested in contacts management venture Diro Labs and housekeeping services provider Unnati Helpers, as the parent of hiring portal Naukri.com spreads its bets on startups.

The company said in a stock-exchange filing on Wednesday that it purchased an 11.5% stake in Diro Labs for Rs 3 crore (about $450,000) and a 28.5% stake in Unnati Helpers for Rs 4 crore.

Diro Labs, run by Vcare Technologies Pvt. Ltd, allows users to make groups of contacts, back them up on cloud, and connect contacts with social media. The startup is based out of Delhi, and also has offices in the US and the UK.

The company was founded in 2014 by Vishal Gupta, Sumeet Singh and Nikhil Rai. Gupta has earlier worked with Delhi Call Centre Ltd while Singh worked with Emerging India Value Advisors and Ernst & Young. Rai was earlier with Prema Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.

Diro Labs competes with phone contacts management app InTouchApp, which recently raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Blume Ventures.

Unnati Helpers, run by Unnati Online Pvt. Ltd, provides housekeeping services providers for households and businesses. The Gurgaon-based company was founded in 2014 by Shantanu Singh, Eral Ravi and Aashutosh Chaudhary. Singh, a management graduate from XLRI, was earlier with Accenture while Ravi was with insurance company Bharti Axa. Chaudhary handles the technology function for the platform.

Unnati Helpers competes with startups such as BookMyBai.com, which raised around $150,000 in November 2015, and Didi, an on-demand platform that provides housekeeping services, which secured an equal amount in angel funding the same month.

Info Edge operates a slew of Internet properties including real estate portal 99acres.com and matrimonial website Jeevansathi.com, besides Naukri.com. It also runs education services portal Shiksha.com and restaurant listings platform Zomato.

Info Edge has also invested in Bangalore-based online photography startup Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd as well as MyDala, BigStylist and PolicyBazaar.

Info Edge posted a standalone net profit of Rs 141.58 crore for 2015-16 compared with Rs 193.86 crore the year before. For the fourth quarter through March, its standalone net profit fell 30% from a year earlier to Rs 57.18 crore while net sales rose 18% to Rs 204 crore.

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