Prosus Bets on AI to Drive Next Growth Wave in India
Prosus is banking on AI to sharpen unit economics, speed up innovation, and turn its Indian bets into the next US$100 billion growth engine.
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Prosus is putting artificial intelligence at the center of its India play, tying new investments in payments, consumer internet, and logistics to what chief executive Fabricio Bloisi calls a once-in-a-generation technology shift.
“We live in a time of fast change, and the rate of change is accelerating. New technologies, specifically artificial intelligence or AI, will rewrite the winning countries and companies,” he said in the company’s latest annual report. “Prosus has changed substantially to become a company that can adapt faster, innovate faster, and I am confident that this capability will enable us to prosper in these times of fast change.”
India, which Prosus describes as “a global hub of digital innovation,” is a core focus for the group’s AI-first strategy. Since 2015, the company has deployed $8.6 billion across more than 30 Indian companies in commerce, fintech, and AI-driven software. It lists a controlling stake in Mindgate to strengthen unified payments interface (UPI) infrastructure, alongside positions in Mintifi, Bluestone, and Rapido.
Swiggy, Meesho, Urban Company, and Rapido are “key companies” in its portfolio, spanning food and quick commerce, horizontal marketplaces, at-home services, and ride-hailing.
The appeal, according to Prosus, lies in India’s growth trajectory, rising consumption, and “the transformative policies of ‘Digital India’” that have created a vast, tech-savvy customer base.
The company argues that its hybrid model—both investor and builder—lets it “drive meaningful impact in India’s digital transformation,” including the rollout of AI capabilities across its ecosystem.
Across the group, management is explicit about AI’s role.
“We are committed to creating the future through innovation and an AI-first world,” Bloisi wrote, setting an ambition “to build the next $100 billion in value for Prosus by creating thriving regional lifestyle ecommerce ecosystems.”
The company says its AI systems already power logistics, trust and safety, marketing, customer support, and payments. Operating metrics cited in the report include 30 million monthly orders routed through 25 million AI-generated “most efficient” paths, cutting delivery costs by 16%; automated moderation of 95% of two million listings daily; and payment decisioning that handles 60% of transactions with a 97% approval rate and 0.1% charge-backs.
In India, that toolkit is intended to scale.
Prosus notes Swiggy’s public listing in late 2024, valuing its stake at about $8 billion, and says PayU India—despite a trading loss last year—remains a priority in fintech with a plan to “restore its profitability.”
It frames Mindgate’s UPI technology as a core enabler for deeper payments penetration, while companies like Meesho and Urban Company benefit from shared AI engineering in pricing, logistics, and customer experience.
The group is also building a governance framework for AI.
The board “approved and adopted our responsible AI policy” in FY25, covering design, monitoring, compliance, and bias checks, and aligned with emerging laws such as the EU AI Act.
Internally, adoption is being pushed through tools like Toqan, the company’s AI assistant, used by over 20,000 employees daily, which Prosus says delivers an average 11% productivity gain.
It also lists common applications across the portfolio, from recommendations and fraud detection to predictive inventory management, and calls AI “an indispensable tool for our platforms.”
Bloisi pairs that with a capital strategy aimed at “AI-first” investments, leveraging data, customer reach, and cross-portfolio synergies.
Towards the end, he links the technology shift directly to value creation: “We believe this time of fast change offers opportunities to invest in transformative businesses, particularly in AI. We are focused on creating another $100 billion in value and I believe we are making real progress.”
Chair Koos Bekker frames the challenge in broader terms, citing “two massive impacts”: geopolitical uncertainty and generational technological change.
“We will try to navigate these… as best we can,” he writes. “Our results reflect the benefits of a refined strategic focus which we believe is appropriate in the context of global developments and uncertainty.”
Prosus’s wager is that its AI operating model will translate into a competitive edge in India’s scale-driven, fast-digitizing market. The test now is whether those gains can deepen margins and compound value across a portfolio it says is primed for multiple IPOs.
