New-Age Tycoon

Billionaire debutant Sanjeev Bikhchandani of Info Edge has built himself a fortune, and a reputation to match.

- Sayan Chakraborty

He was prepared for a snub. Or, at least a round of intense deliberation. Instead, Yashish Dahiya walked out of the meeting triumphant, without breaking a sweat. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, an investor in his fledgling startup Policybazaar, not only gave him a patient hearing and acknowledged his concern, but also promised corrective action, all within a few minutes.

The bone of contention was a clause on liquidity preference that was skewed heavily in favour of Bikhchandani’s firm Info Edge, the only institutional investor in Policybazaar, with a 49 percent stake. In 2010, when venture capital (VC) was still a novelty in India and investors had the luxury of dictating terms, Dahiya could have done little had Bikhchandani not relented.

“A lot of people would say that it didn’t matter or let it be,” says Dahiya. Bikhchandani didn’t try to soothe Dahiya with platitudes. Instead, he ensured that the clause was tweaked to suit Dahiya, in three days. “He not just accepted that our understanding was different, but changed the clause. His ethical compasses are really pointing to the north.”

Deep Kalra, founder and group CEO at MakeMyTrip, says “Sanjeev has an amazing sense of corporate governance and ethics.” Kalra, like Dahiya, has seen Bikhchandani play by the book from close quarters when he was on MakeMyTrip’s board until the firm listed on Nasdaq in 2010. “We used to pay the board members a fee. Sanjeev agreed to take MakeMytrip stock, but insisted that the stocks be allotted to Info Edge and not him personally. The logic was he was taking time away from his company to give us, hence, the company should benefit and not him,” says Kalra.