Sanjeev Bikhchandani Built India's Internet Job Market From a Servant's Quarter

Sanjeev Bikhchandani grew up in a middle-class Delhi household, studied economics at St. Stephen's College, and completed an MBA at IIM Ahmedabad before working in marketing roles rather than jumping straight into entrepreneurship. In 1995, he founded Info Edge — not as an internet company at first, but as a database and recruitment classifieds business, operating out of a servant's quarter above a garage with seed capital of roughly ₹2,000.

The Pivot That Defined Everything

The turning point came in 1997, when Bikhchandani launched Naukri.com, moving Info Edge fully into what was then an almost nonexistent Indian internet economy. The site ran on a rented US server costing $25 a month, with a small team manually gathering job listings, in some cases from newspapers, to seed the platform with content before employers began posting directly. It was a genuinely unglamorous, bootstrapped build in a market where investors were hesitant to back an online business at all, and where persuading Indian companies to advertise jobs online — rather than through classifieds or agencies — was its own uphill sales problem.

Diversifying Into Full Life-Stage Coverage

Rather than treat Naukri as a single bet, Bikhchandani expanded Info Edge methodically into other consumer categories: Jeevansathi.com for matrimony, 99acres.com for real estate, and Shiksha.com for education, alongside Naukri Gulf for overseas recruitment. Each platform targeted a distinct life need rather than competing for the same attention as Naukri, letting Info Edge build what effectively became a portfolio of independent internet businesses operating under one holding company, each focused on content, trust and long-term value rather than chasing quick returns.

A Landmark Listing

In 2006, Info Edge became one of the first Indian internet companies to list on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange — a milestone that mattered beyond Info Edge itself, since it demonstrated to Indian investors and future founders that an internet business built domestically could generate real, durable value and justify public market confidence, at a time when that wasn't yet an obvious conclusion in Indian markets.

The Investor Behind Some of India's Biggest Startups

Perhaps Bikhchandani's most consequential decisions came after Info Edge itself was established, in his role as an early institutional and angel backer of Indian startups. Info Edge and Bikhchandani personally were early investors in Zomato and PolicyBazaar — both of which went on to become major public companies — alongside stakes in ventures including FirstCry. That track record has made him one of the more consistently cited proof points that Indian-origin capital, not just foreign venture funds, could identify and back category-defining Indian internet businesses well before they became obvious bets.

Giving Back to the Ecosystem He Helped Build

Beyond Info Edge, Bikhchandani co-founded Ashoka University and has remained active in India's startup and education ecosystem, including serving as President of the Delhi chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). In 2020, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his contribution to Indian trade and industry.

Why It Matters for Business Success

Bikhchandani's story is a useful counterpoint to India's more recent unicorn-and-mega-round startup narratives: Info Edge was built slowly, profitably, and largely without the venture capital intensity that defines most Indian startup success stories today. Its diversification strategy — building several independently valuable, life-stage-specific platforms rather than one dominant product — and Bikhchandani's own subsequent investing track record both point to the same underlying discipline: identifying a genuine, underserved need, building patiently around it, and reinvesting the resulting capital and credibility into the next generation of Indian founders.

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At www.elevatexstudios.com / ElevateX Studios, Business Success Stories, part of our Entrepreneurs coverage, tracks the founders and companies turning ambitious early bets into businesses that can stand up to real market scrutiny.