Info Edge Ltd — Q3 FY26

Info Edge (India) Ltd Q3 FY2025-26 Earnings Conference Call https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RK4JGibUPU Published: 3 months ago

0:00 Good evening everyone. Welcome to InfoE India Limited quarter 3 FI26 earning conference call. Joining us today from 0:07 7 seconds management we have Mr. Sanjiv Bik Chandani founder and vice chairman, Mr. 0:11 11 seconds Hesh Aeroy, co-promoter and managing director and Mr. Amish Ragawanchi, chief financial officer. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the 0:19 19 seconds detailed disclaimer included in the presentation for good order sake. Kindly note that this conference is being recorded. All the participant lines will 0:27 27 seconds be in listenon only mode and there will be an opportunity for Q&A after the presentation concludes. I will now hand over the call to Mr. Aroy for his 0:34 34 seconds opening remarks. Thank you and over to you. 0:37 37 seconds Thank you VI and uh very good evening everyone and welcome to InfoE's earnings call for Q3 of FY26. 0:46 46 seconds Uh as always we will begin with an overview of our standalone financial performance followed by business highlights for each segment and followed 0:54 54 seconds with the com our commentary on the strategy for each business and we will then take questions for the standalone business in Q3 of 1:02 1 minute, 2 seconds FI26. Billings were rupes 747 crores a yi growth of 12% and revenue was rupees 1:09 1 minute, 9 seconds 765 crores a yi growth of 14%. Operating profits at a standalone level grew by 13% Y to rupees 297 crores and the 1:18 1 minute, 18 seconds operating margins stood at 39%. The standalone business generated cash from operations before taxes of rupes 376 1:26 1 minute, 26 seconds crores in Q3 of FI26. The cash generation from the recruitment business was rupes 373 crores. The non-recruitment businesses at an 1:35 1 minute, 35 seconds aggregate level generated cash of rups 11 crores in Q3 of FI26. 1:41 1 minute, 41 seconds For the standalone business uh in the first 9 months of uh FI26, buildings were rupes 2,120 crores, a Yi growth of 1:50 1 minute, 50 seconds 12% and revenue was rupees 2247 crores, a Yi growth of 14%. Operating 1:58 1 minute, 58 seconds profits grew by 10% YI to rupees 815 crores and the operating margin was 36%. 2:04 2 minutes, 4 seconds The standalone business generated cash from operations before taxes of rups 848 crores in the first 9 months of FI26. 2:12 2 minutes, 12 seconds The cash balance of infoedge including wholly owned subsidiaries at the end of December 2025 stood at rupes 4,825 crores. Given our inherent financial 2:21 2 minutes, 21 seconds strength, uh consistent cash generation and a well- capitalized balance sheet, the board has approved an increase in the dividend payout to enhance 2:29 2 minutes, 29 seconds shareholder returns while retaining adequate capital to support business operations, investments, and potential strategic acquisitions. The dividend 2:36 2 minutes, 36 seconds payout ratio has been revised to up to 65% of uh PAT uh continuing our track record of progressively improving 2:44 2 minutes, 44 seconds shareholder distributions with last year's payout at 39%. The board has also approved a second interim dividend of rupees 2.4 per share for the year. 2:54 2 minutes, 54 seconds Moving on to segmental performance and starting with the recruitment business, standalone recruitment billings grew by 11% uh to rupees 548 cr and revenue grew 3:04 3 minutes, 4 seconds by 14% to 575 cr. Recruitment billings including Z and D select grew by 9% to 3:11 3 minutes, 11 seconds rupees 565 cr and revenue grew by 12% to rupees 592 crores. The operating profit for the standalone recruitment segment 3:19 3 minutes, 19 seconds improved by 15% year on year to rupees 341 cr and the operating profit margin was 59%. Cash generated from recruitment operations was rupes 373 crores. 3:31 3 minutes, 31 seconds In the first 9 months of FI2526 the standalone recruitment billings grew by 10% to rupees 1564 cr and revenue grew by 14% to rupees 1675 crores. 3:43 3 minutes, 43 seconds Recruitment billings including Z andman do select grew by 10% to rupees 1623 crores and revenue grew by 13% to rupes 3:51 3 minutes, 51 seconds 1735 cr. The operating profit for the standalone recruitment segment improved by 12% yearonear to rups 937 crores and the operating profit margin was 56%. 4:02 4 minutes, 2 seconds Cash generated from recruitment operations was rupees 894 crores. 4:10 4 minutes, 10 seconds Uh the hiring environment uh remains uncertain as evident from our jobseek index as well. Despite this backdrop, 4:17 4 minutes, 17 seconds the business delivered uh uh close to 10% year-on-year growth in billings in Q3 similar to the growth seen in Q2. 4:24 4 minutes, 24 seconds Billing for uh the technology IT and BPM segment combined grew at 14% yearon year. GCCs grew at 13%. Recruitment 4:33 4 minutes, 33 seconds consultants grew at 5% and all the other sectors combined grew at 2%. 4:38 4 minutes, 38 seconds uh BFSI retail uh infrastructure and consultant segments witnessed softness in growth whereas healthcare and manufacturing continue to grow in double 4:46 4 minutes, 46 seconds digits. Uh no jobseker services business reported rupees 39 cr in billing a yi 4:53 4 minutes, 53 seconds growth of 17% with a 59% operating profit margin in Q3 of FI26. No gul's billing grew by grew to rups 34 crores a 5:02 5 minutes, 2 seconds yi growth of 19% with a 33% operating margin in Q3 of FI26 job which is are currently operating 5:10 5 minutes, 10 seconds primarily on a free premium model and is focused on select markets uh maintain strong platform metrics and continue to grow revenue on the jobseker front the 5:19 5 minutes, 19 seconds no platform now hosts approximately 113 million rs and added an average of rupee around 20,000 rs daily during Q3 of 5:27 5 minutes, 27 seconds FI26. Six marketing expenses in were significantly lower in Q3 compared to Q1 and Q2 and were flat on a YI basis in no we 5:36 5 minutes, 36 seconds continue to invest in job and other smaller businesses as a scale up uh uh monetization efforts. Therefore the operating margins which saw some 5:44 5 minutes, 44 seconds moderation in Q1 to 53% improved by 330 basis points to 56% in Q2 and further improved by 350 basis points to over 59% 5:52 5 minutes, 52 seconds in Q3. Excluding job hair, the recruitment margins were around 62% in the third quarter. 5:59 5 minutes, 59 seconds Moving over to the real estate segment, in Q3 of Wi-Fi 26, billings grew by 14% to rupees 117 crores and revenue also 6:08 6 minutes, 8 seconds grew 14% to rupees 119 cr. Operating losses were rupes 20 cr whereas cash losses from operations were rupees 10 6:14 6 minutes, 14 seconds crores in Q3 of FI26. In the first nine months of this year, billings grew by 15% to rupees 334 crores and revenue grew by 13% to rupees 344 crores. 6:26 6 minutes, 26 seconds Operating losses were rupees 63 cr and cash losses for operations were rupees 27 crores in the first 9 months of FI26. 6:35 6 minutes, 35 seconds Uh the secondary business performed well in real estate while the primary segment uh remained uh relatively slower. We 6:43 6 minutes, 43 seconds continue to gain fresh supply share across categories including residential resale and rental as well as commercial spanning both the owner and broker 6:51 6 minutes, 51 seconds segments further strengthening our supply leadership. Live resale come rental listings from brokers grew 41% yearonear while live new project 6:58 6 minutes, 58 seconds listings increased 27% yearonear during the quarter. Our investments in the platform supported additional gains in traffic share with the quarterly average 7:06 7 minutes, 6 seconds at 46% up from 44% in Q2. With consistent traffic share gains and uh accelerating response growth and mid- 7:14 7 minutes, 14 seconds teens billing growth in recent quarters, we believe we've outpaced the market and continue to expand not just our traffic but our revenue share as well. 7:22 7 minutes, 22 seconds Moving on to the matchmaking business in Q3 of FI26, Jim Sati billings grew by 29% to rupees 36 crores and revenue also 7:31 7 minutes, 31 seconds grew by 28% to rupees 35 cr. The business incurred an operating loss of rupees 2 cr and generated cash from operations of rupees 5 crores in Q3 of F526. 7:41 7 minutes, 41 seconds Uh we acquired a few years ago and the business has since made good progress. 7:46 7 minutes, 46 seconds We now own 100% of Isle and are reporting his performance alongside Jieven Sati as part of our matchmaking portfolio. Jven Sati plus reported 7:55 7 minutes, 55 seconds rupees 46 crores in billing, a Yi growth of 31% and the combined operating losses reduced by 60% to rupees 4 crores in Q3. 8:03 8 minutes, 3 seconds Both businesses are operating near break even. Now in the first 9 months of FI26, Jvenati billings grew by 32% to rupees 8:11 8 minutes, 11 seconds 104 cr and revenue also grew by 29% to rupees 102 crores. The business incurred an operating loss of rupees 1 cr and 8:19 8 minutes, 19 seconds generated cash from operations of 11 crores in the first 9 months. Jimati plus reported 132 cr in billing a yi cr 8:26 8 minutes, 26 seconds to 31% with a combined and combined operating losses reduced by 64% to rupees 8 crores in the first 9 months of FY26. 8:36 8 minutes, 36 seconds Uh Jansati remained focused on improving sales conversions and arpoos during the quarter. The market continues to be competitive with with with leading match mini platforms investing in marketing 8:44 8 minutes, 44 seconds and offering higher than usual discounts. Isle grew at 35% y during the quarter and AR the Kerala app malalam 8:54 8 minutes, 54 seconds focused app grew is growing at an even faster pace. 8:58 8 minutes, 58 seconds Moving on to our education business in Q3 of FI26 billing was rupees 46 crores. 9:03 9 minutes, 3 seconds A yi growth of 4% and revenue grew by 3% to rupees 33 36 crores. The business incurred an operating loss of rupes 1 cr and generated cash from operations of 9:11 9 minutes, 11 seconds rupes 17 crores in Q3 of FI26. In the first 9 months of FI26, billing was rupes 119 cr a y growth of 7% and 9:20 9 minutes, 20 seconds revenue grew by 14% to rupees 126 crores. The business delivered an operating profit of rups 8 crores and generated cash from operations of rupees 11 crores in the first 9 months of FI26. 9:31 9 minutes, 31 seconds The domestic shika business continued to grow in billings whereas the study abroad business uh witnessed softness in Q3. Uh the AI related impact is uh now 9:40 9 minutes, 40 seconds very visible in in the shika domestic business and has led to a sharp drop in traffic. This will also impact uh billing growth over time. The business 9:48 9 minutes, 48 seconds is strengthening uh its domestic counseling capabilities try to drive higher conversions from client responses to student applications to mitigate the 9:56 9 minutes, 56 seconds AI impact. uh it's pivoting uh its business model uh and but time will tell how this uh pans out. 10:05 10 minutes, 5 seconds Uh I would like to now take a few minutes to talk about how we are thinking about our growth strategy for across our businesses. Starting with 10:12 10 minutes, 12 seconds recruitment, we believe no growth is driven by three variables. Overall hiring volume, our share of hiring and revenue per hire. Uh 10:21 10 minutes, 21 seconds hiring on the platform can be proh broadly classified into three different segments. Premium hiring CTC of greater than 30 lakhs peranom. Mid-level hiring 10:30 10 minutes, 30 seconds CTC between five and 30 lakhs peranom and the value segment of CTC less than five lakhs peranom. Across these segments, we are working on increasing 10:38 10 minutes, 38 seconds our hiring share and increasing our revenue per hire. In the premium segment, uh the overall market size is small but growing rapidly. Our hiring share in this segment is growing faster. 10:49 10 minutes, 49 seconds uh uh we are working on this through targeted premium offerings such as no top tier alongside verticalized premium job boards like IM jobs for management 10:58 10 minutes, 58 seconds roles for management hiring and highrisisk for specialized technology hiring. Revenue per hire is structurally higher in this segment. uh and we see 11:07 11 minutes, 7 seconds further headroom for improvement. Uh if we are uh if as long as we are able to strengthen our uh value proposition and if we keep gaining share beyond talent 11:16 11 minutes, 16 seconds sourcing the increasing demand for employer branding solutions on our platform is also supporting better monetization in the mid segment. Volume 11:24 11 minutes, 24 seconds growth is currently moderate. We are a clear leader in this segment and continue to gain share. We expect to further increase our hiring share 11:32 11 minutes, 32 seconds through AIEL capabilities that enh enhance recruiter productivity and enable workflow automation with AIX 11:39 11 minutes, 39 seconds remaining a key driver. Uh our focus here is also on improving revenue per hire through focus on job marketing, 11:46 11 minutes, 46 seconds data products and scaling assisted services through AI plus humanled assistance. In the value segment, volumes are growing rapidly. However, 11:54 11 minutes, 54 seconds digital penetration remains low and monetization is structurally challenging. Our hiring share is currently uh limited with job hair 12:02 12 minutes, 2 seconds expected to play an increasing role over the long term. In this segment, our pools are lower, churn is high, employers hire urgently, not 12:10 12 minutes, 10 seconds periodically, and workers don't maintain resumes and look for jobs locally. 12:15 12 minutes, 15 seconds Therefore, success here depends on building a platform that enables real-time labor matching while creating simple workflow solutions for the informal economy. Similar models have 12:24 12 minutes, 24 seconds scaled effectively in markets such as China where platforms uh build strongme density and unlock meaningful growth. Uh 12:31 12 minutes, 31 seconds we view this as a medium-term opportunity that can contribute uh potentially contribute meaningfully to recruitment revenue over time, grow 12:39 12 minutes, 39 seconds faster than the core business and benefit from the broader formalization of the economy. 12:45 12 minutes, 45 seconds Beyond the core B2B business, our B2C offering uh is scaling well uh uh delivering a CAGGR of 20% over the last 12:53 12 minutes, 53 seconds few years while improving profitability from 30% to 59% over the last couple of years. This comprises primary primarily 13:01 13 minutes, 1 second comprises of two consumer offerings. No 360 that offers AI profile, AI powered profile, resume, interview prep and job 13:09 13 minutes, 9 seconds discovery solutions and Noy minis, a high quality short term short form content feed that drives strong engagement by providing career insights. 13:18 13 minutes, 18 seconds Driven by these initiatives, monthly active users have grown at a caggr of 12% over the last couple of years and paid users as a percentage of MAU have 13:26 13 minutes, 26 seconds risen from around 1.2% to 1.6% 6% over the past year with a significant uh room with significant room for further 13:33 13 minutes, 33 seconds growth. The revenue growth has been uh driven by the launch and rapid scale up of Noy 360 that has led to two shifts. 13:41 13 minutes, 41 seconds First being uh transform uh the first being transforming from an offline lead calling based sales model to a largely 13:49 13 minutes, 49 seconds self-s serve online first model. the our online revenue mix has um uh changed from 27% to 54 to has has moved from 27% 13:57 13 minutes, 57 seconds to 45% over the last 12 months. The second shifting is a shift is the embedding of candidate service delivery 14:05 14 minutes, 5 seconds within product leveraging AI and dellinking scale from ops uh bandwidth 14:12 14 minutes, 12 seconds with improving engagement expanding monetization levers and continued product innovation. We believe this business is well position positioned to sustain healthy growth going forward. 14:21 14 minutes, 21 seconds On the international side, our NORI Gulf business has delivered billing growth of 20% over the last few years alongside a meaningful improvement in profitability, 14:29 14 minutes, 29 seconds progressing from break even to an operating margin to an operating margin of now 33%. 14:35 14 minutes, 35 seconds The platform extends the Noy playbook to the Middle East with localized solutions tailoring to regional hiring needs while building a strong on on ground presence 14:44 14 minutes, 44 seconds and solid brand recall amongst both job seekers and recruiters. With healthy hiring momentum across these markets and a strengthened operating foundation, we 14:52 14 minutes, 52 seconds believe no Golf is well positioned to sustain strong profitable growth going forward. Moving on to the real estate business. 15:00 15 minutes The real estate business spans multiple segments, new homes, resale and rental uh within residential along with commercial. With new homes and resale 15:09 15 minutes, 9 seconds comprising the majority of the market opportunity over the past 12 to 18 months, we have consistently expanded our traffic share 15:18 15 minutes, 18 seconds by approximately 0.5 to 1% each month reflecting steady execution and uh strengthening platform relevance. 15:26 15 minutes, 26 seconds In the residential resale segment, daily fresh supply has grown by 40% over the last 24 months, taking our share supply 15:33 15 minutes, 33 seconds share to 50% in Q3. Response growth has has nearly doubled over the last couple of years uh and uh and grew by over around 60% in Q3. 15:44 15 minutes, 44 seconds In the new project segment, um this is a large this is a large market estimate as about 5,000 crores including both 15:52 15 minutes, 52 seconds digital and non-digital advertising expense. 15:55 15 minutes, 55 seconds Our current uh share remains relatively modest with a meaningful proportion or portion being captured by horizontal platforms such as Meta and Google. 16:05 16 minutes, 5 seconds This presents a significant headroom opportunity for us. We are seeing sh some green shoots here. Responses which were uh response growth with in this 16:12 16 minutes, 12 seconds segment which was flat last year uh is now uh but uh are now growing at 30% yearon year on our platform. We are 16:20 16 minutes, 20 seconds strengthening our penetration and offerings in this segment including the recent rollout of 99 shots in the NCR market. An Instagram style short video 16:28 16 minutes, 28 seconds feed uh featuring project insights, resident reviews and curated content to drive deeper user engagement. 16:35 16 minutes, 35 seconds The rental and commercial segments while small today are also seeing faster response growth on our platform. Sustain gains in gains in supply traffic and 16:43 16 minutes, 43 seconds response position as us well for continued growth. These operating improvements typically translate into billing uh growth with the lag as 16:51 16 minutes, 51 seconds customers increase spending after experiencing a better response and better quality of response over time which in turn will drive operating leverage and cl cash cash flow generation. 17:01 17 minutes, 1 second Moving on to the matchmaking business, Jim Sati. The business has delivered consistent momentum uh with 30% Y billings growth over the last seven 17:10 17 minutes, 10 seconds eight quarters and has progressed from uh operating losses of rupes 120 crores a few years ago to now reach break even. 17:17 17 minutes, 17 seconds We have emerged as a leader in the Hindi market in the Hindi- speaking markets with a 45% profile share and we continue to expand our presence. Our focus 17:26 17 minutes, 26 seconds remains are on building a more dominant position in these markets which should help drive higher monetization over time. We're also developing new products 17:34 17 minutes, 34 seconds uh leveraging general AI and data science to enhance user experience and make the partner search process simpler, faster and more relevant. 17:42 17 minutes, 42 seconds In the la in the first nine months uh the isle business uh which is an acquisition also recorded rupees 28 17:50 17 minutes, 50 seconds crores of billings reflecting 30% yi growth alongside a meaningful reduction in operating losses in our near-term 17:57 17 minutes, 57 seconds focus on product improvements to drive engagement making the platform free for women has already has already contributed to a stronger participation 18:04 18 minutes, 4 seconds and improved marketplace dynamics uh in the malali market we believe is a leader in the dating space and and has now been 18:12 18 minutes, 12 seconds consistently growing growing at 40% year and year. It contributes substantially to overall is revenues. This positions our matchmaking portfolio to sustain higher revenue growth while also 18:20 18 minutes, 20 seconds contributing to overall cash flow generation in the future. 18:25 18 minutes, 25 seconds Uh lastly in the education business to mitigate the AI impact and to grow the business we are pivoting towards 18:32 18 minutes, 32 seconds counseling and marketing services uh to diversify the model and build more resilient uh revenue streams. The study 18:40 18 minutes, 40 seconds abroad segment is experiencing softness in select markets particularly the US and Canada. We are actively diversifying our offerings toward destinations such 18:47 18 minutes, 47 seconds as the UK, UAE and continental Europe while strengthening our presence in these markets to align with evolving student preferences and support to support future growth. 18:57 18 minutes, 57 seconds Couple of minutes on AI. Uh there are multiple schools of thought on how how AI may reshape hiring and global 19:06 19 minutes, 6 seconds trends may not but but global trends may not fully translate to the Indian market given its unique hiring hiring dynamics. 19:11 19 minutes, 11 seconds Global recruitment models are primarily driven by job listings but these have not historically seen success in the 19:19 19 minutes, 19 seconds Indian market. Uh most of our revenue as you know comes from our database offering. While AI can enhance workforce productivity and lower cost from a 19:27 19 minutes, 27 seconds global context, his economic viability in India is still unknown. If horizontal AI pro platforms were to expand into the hiring space, it could result in higher 19:35 19 minutes, 35 seconds noise levels including autogenerated rums, spam applications and low signal candidates potentially increasing the 19:43 19 minutes, 43 seconds relevance of specialized curated platforms like Noy. 19:48 19 minutes, 48 seconds how uh uh in in recruitment our position is supported by uh we we continue to leverage AI for to our advantage. In 19:55 19 minutes, 55 seconds recruitment, our position is supported by structural strength such as large volumes of proprietary data, uh millions of daily interactions and deep AI and ML 20:03 20 minutes, 3 seconds capabilities. And this is not just the profile data which is easy to get, but all the the behavioral data you know the millions of interactions which happen on 20:11 20 minutes, 11 seconds our platform every day which which other other platforms may not have. These capabilities power our matching and 20:19 20 minutes, 19 seconds recommendation engines allowing us to develop deliver outcomes beyond a simple listings model. Therefore, Noy is not a typical SAS business. We are seeing 20:27 20 minutes, 27 seconds encouraging traction in AIX, our agentic AIEL workflow automation platform. It is already serving 100 plus clients and has closed 20,000 job mandates significantly 20:36 20 minutes, 36 seconds reducing candidate sourcing time. At Jvenati, recommendations matching and pricing are now fully AIdriven needing to improve two-way matches and stronger platform outcomes. 20:45 20 minutes, 45 seconds We're also increasingly deploying AI and in 99 acres to enhance matching and and and recommendations. Our key priorities 20:53 20 minutes, 53 seconds AI priorities are enhancing search quality, personalization and productivity for users and customers. 20:59 20 minutes, 59 seconds Launching AI powered features to improve experience and engagement. Building AI first products to unlock new revenue streams and embedding AI into internal 21:08 21 minutes, 8 seconds processes to improve efficiency and execution. 21:11 21 minutes, 11 seconds And lastly, across all our businesses, Gen AI is enabling faster feature rollouts, scalable content creation, and 21:18 21 minutes, 18 seconds more efficient marketing with several recent campaigns developed in house using AIE tools. Overall, our AI initiatives are delivering tangible 21:27 21 minutes, 27 seconds operating outcomes and positioning us well to support growth across all our verticles uh including recruitment, 99 acres, junati, and shika while reinforcing our comparative strengths. 21:37 21 minutes, 37 seconds Thank you all for joining the call and now we happy to take any questions. 21:41 21 minutes, 41 seconds Thank you Videsh. Anand we can now begin with uh question answer session. We already have some questions in the queue. 21:48 21 minutes, 48 seconds Thanks Vit. We already have two questions. Anybody who wish to ask a question may raise the hand. We'll take your name and announce your turn in 21:55 21 minutes, 55 seconds question. Yeah. So the first question is from Sachin from Bank of America. Sachin go ahead and ask your question. 22:04 22 minutes, 4 seconds Thanks an and then Venit. Uh I have three questions. Uh first question hit just want to double click and get a 22:11 22 minutes, 11 seconds little bit more clarity in terms of uh the hiring segments what you mentioned premium mid-level 22:18 22 minutes, 18 seconds uh wanted to understand basis your interactions with all the companies how are you seeing actually the hiring trends out here obviously there are a 22:27 22 minutes, 27 seconds couple of pointers right one is how the macro is going and industry specific issue and second is an AIE impact where 22:34 22 minutes, 34 seconds clearly there's a bit more uncertaintity and most corporates are not as sure in terms of you know how should they think about hiring uh so what are you guys 22:43 22 minutes, 43 seconds picking up and you know how should generally we expect uh trends uh you know in the premium and mid uh segment going ahead 22:52 22 minutes, 52 seconds our overall sense of the market right now is that the uh volume growth uh continues to be robust in the premium 23:01 23 minutes, 1 second and in the value segments. So there's a uh so value by value segments we we mean people who are paid less than five lakhs peranom and in by premium we mean people who are paid more than 30 lakhs peranom. 23:12 23 minutes, 12 seconds So there uh there's there's reasonable demand for senior professionals. So there's really demand for professionals with uh new age 23:21 23 minutes, 21 seconds skills and there continues to be a lot of demand for uh professionals in in roles like warehousing, logistics, 23:28 23 minutes, 28 seconds manufacturing, delivery boys, uh uh counter sales folks folks and so on. 23:33 23 minutes, 33 seconds That's the value segment. The mid segment volume growth has moderated actually over the last few years is what we 23:40 23 minutes, 40 seconds sense. uh so in our view so we used to see 7 8% volume growth in this segment every year maybe four or five years ago 23:48 23 minutes, 48 seconds since then that has moderated to 4% volume growth that's what we are see sensing right now uh so this segment 23:55 23 minutes, 55 seconds which is the 5 to 30 lakh segment seems to be under pressure uh on volume 24:02 24 minutes, 2 seconds okay uh got it um second question is how things are picking up uh in AIS and also 24:10 24 minutes, 10 seconds a bit on NEO know would love to actually understand how the adoption of uh agentic AI has been for you guys any 24:18 24 minutes, 18 seconds feedback you're hearing out here and historic and in fact globally we found you know agentic AI which is being 24:25 24 minutes, 25 seconds launched is typically deflationary in nature so wanted to understand uh is it allowing you to charge more or you know 24:33 24 minutes, 33 seconds there could be an impact from a deflationary perspective also from a pricing point of view it's still early days and uh close to 100 of our clients are now experimenting 24:41 24 minutes, 41 seconds with ARX. Over 20,000 mandates have been sort of used ARX and uh over the last 24:49 24 minutes, 49 seconds few months. Uh um we are also fine-tuning our go to market. We are you know also iterating a bit as we go 24:57 24 minutes, 57 seconds along. Uh we're also trying to figure out how we can take it faster to more customers so that they can at least try with try it play with it and that also 25:05 25 minutes, 5 seconds gives us feedback and helps us improve the offering. uh so early days still I mean we are I mean our clients are 25:12 25 minutes, 12 seconds learning we are also learning uh um will it be deflationary or inflationary I don't know our uh short-term goal will 25:20 25 minutes, 20 seconds be to get more and more clients to use it first so we'll focus on adoption and usage and we think if we are able to 25:28 25 minutes, 28 seconds enable more hiring through AIX or and if you're able to enable faster hiring through ARX over time and help uh recruiters become more productive uh 25:36 25 minutes, 36 seconds revenue will So got it. And are you seeing any of your competitors launch it? Because global you see in Indeed and seek also launch 25:44 25 minutes, 44 seconds their own agentic uh AI peers I'm sure others are also experimenting uh but um I mean I mean you know uh it's still early days in this market. 25:56 25 minutes, 56 seconds Got it. Um and third question is uh on the point what you mentioned about the unique nature in India from a hiring 26:04 26 minutes, 4 seconds dynamics perspective. uh can you help us explain a bit more in terms of you know how India is uh and no is different as 26:12 26 minutes, 12 seconds compared to global peers because globally uh the concerns right now are the growth and margins be under pressure but completely understand you know India 26:21 26 minutes, 21 seconds hiring is different would love to understand you know where no is unique and why those global pressures are not there in India 26:28 26 minutes, 28 seconds yeah I I so India is different I'll tell you how India is different see uh globally most job boards work on Um I 26:36 26 minutes, 36 seconds mean job listings is is what works in most other markets right? So companies post jobs on platforms and they get 26:43 26 minutes, 43 seconds applications and they hire from the applications they get uh now that's not a very effective way of hiring in India 26:52 26 minutes, 52 seconds uh uh way of hiring in India because what tends to happen in India at least in the mid-market and premium segments is that uh there are lots of applicants. 27:01 27 minutes, 1 second So as a company let's say you uh you want to hire two people and you post a job and if you get uh 2,000 applications you know you get overwhelmed and which 27:10 27 minutes, 10 seconds is why what has happened over time in a market like India is that companies have moved to hiring uh through the no database. Now what happens when you use 27:18 27 minutes, 18 seconds the database is you search the database and you look for the kind of people you are interested in and then you contact them right. Uh so you only reach out to the people who you think are relevant. 27:27 27 minutes, 27 seconds when you post a job a lot of irrelevant applications come your way. Now, now what um this whole talk of disintermediation 27:36 27 minutes, 36 seconds fundamentally means that you know some AI agent will start applying on the on behalf of job seekers and you know what 27:44 27 minutes, 44 seconds what I was sort of referring to is that this may actually mean in a market like India this may actually mean even more spam because see overseas job seekers 27:51 27 minutes, 51 seconds are selective. uh like I remember when I went for a conference one to Switzerland many years ago, I was told that the number of one uh job site in Switzerland 28:00 28 minutes gets six applicants per job, right? Uh while in India that number can be a few hundred and in some cases go into a few 28:07 28 minutes, 7 seconds thousand, right? So overseas you know job seekers are more selective uh and therefore there is less spam and 28:15 28 minutes, 15 seconds therefore it easy is is easier to hire through job postings. India is the other way out. Uh job seekers are not selective. uh you get inundated 28:23 28 minutes, 23 seconds overwhelmed with applications and applicants and uh therefore a lot of companies don't want to post jobs they would rather hire through the database 28:30 28 minutes, 30 seconds or through consultants uh because consultants do go even one step further uh so so that's that's how the Indian 28:37 28 minutes, 37 seconds market is different and and and if if if these AI agents lead to more spam uh 28:44 28 minutes, 44 seconds more jobseker spam uh you know I think the the value of databases like no actually go up over pretty clear. Thanks. 28:53 28 minutes, 53 seconds That's what I meant. Yeah, that's it from me. Thanks. 29:04 29 minutes, 4 seconds Okay, thanks Ain. 29:07 29 minutes, 7 seconds Next question from Varn from Embit Capital V. Go ahead and ask your question. 29:16 29 minutes, 16 seconds Thank you very much for the opportunity. 29:18 29 minutes, 18 seconds uh my questions uh the first one is on recruitment. 29:22 29 minutes, 22 seconds So thanks for the color on the kind of growth you're seeing across hiring buckets. uh but uh coming back to 29:31 29 minutes, 31 seconds your traditional breakup uh which is tech GCC's and non- tech it seems that 29:39 29 minutes, 39 seconds your uh your monetization from nonIT customers especially in BFSI retail infrastructure 29:48 29 minutes, 48 seconds has has been weak since May and there's been no recovery there why why is is it 29:56 29 minutes, 56 seconds that you're struggling with nonIT customers ers are they are they delaying their their decisions to renew or are 30:05 30 minutes, 5 seconds they taking up very less hiring kotaas what is the challenge here what do you hear from your sales team that is the first question I will ask the second one 30:14 30 minutes, 14 seconds after you answer this yeah see if you look our our YTD sort of uh sales growth for in the non-hiring segment is close to 7%. Right. So we've 30:23 30 minutes, 23 seconds seen a sharp slowdown compared to last year. Um uh now there have been one or two cases where clients have sort of uh 30:31 30 minutes, 31 seconds not renewed uh for their internal reasons. Maybe they will come back and renew 3 months from now, 6 months from now, who knows? But even if I were to 30:39 30 minutes, 39 seconds take that in account, it's low growth, you know, 7 8% in that ballpark for uh for the year. Um some sectors are still 30:46 30 minutes, 46 seconds growing like healthcare uh but others have been slow. I suspect this is cyclical. I suspect this has to do with 30:53 30 minutes, 53 seconds the economy and if the economy turns and uh you know uh growth hiring growth will 31:00 31 minutes come back uh to these segments. Um that's my sense I could be wrong. I don't think this is because of AI or anything because it's not not as if a 31:07 31 minutes, 7 seconds lot of non AI IT companies have started adopting AI in a large in a big way. I think this is perhaps uh cyclical and 31:15 31 minutes, 15 seconds has to do with the economy and as as and when the economy comes back uh this growth uh should come back. 31:23 31 minutes, 23 seconds Okay. So, Hesh just a follow up on this connecting it to the volume growth you are seeing in the under five lakh CTC segment. 31:34 31 minutes, 34 seconds My understanding was that a large number of hiring mandates among the nonIT customers would be these kind of 31:43 31 minutes, 43 seconds mandates. Right. So, some some certain promotion proportion of course. 31:49 31 minutes, 49 seconds Okay. I thought retail and then staffing all of them would be in this category which is why it is a bit surprising that 31:57 31 minutes, 57 seconds you said the value segment from a CTC standpoint is seeing healthy volume growth but then you see what I what I meant was that the 32:05 32 minutes, 5 seconds value segment and I'm I was also looking at data on job hair um and in that we I I'm including blue collar workers I'm including gray collar workers I'm 32:14 32 minutes, 14 seconds including uh white collar workers who get paid 30 40,000 a month uh I I our sense is that 32:22 32 minutes, 22 seconds uh job growth in this segment is higher uh than the job growth growth in the mid-market segment you know in the pure 32:30 32 minutes, 30 seconds white collar 5 to 30 lakh category segment. Uh similarly job growth uh in the premium segment which is the above 32:37 32 minutes, 37 seconds 30 lakh rupee jobs is our senses today higher than in the mid-market segment. 32:43 32 minutes, 43 seconds Right? Uh that's what we are sensing but this includes on the value side this includes blue collar includes jobs in 32:51 32 minutes, 51 seconds warehouses logistics jobs in del in delivery companies taxi driver jobs manufacturing jobs counter sales retail 32:59 32 minutes, 59 seconds sales you know all these kind of jobs as well healthcare workers lower end at the lower end all kinds of such jobs 33:07 33 minutes, 7 seconds okay that's great I'm I'm clear on this the second one is on the tech IT and BPM 33:13 33 minutes, 13 seconds segments. Now you saw growth accelerate but the narrative that the that the IT 33:21 33 minutes, 21 seconds companies are driving towards is quite different. So how how did you manage to accelerate billing growth from this category of customers? 33:30 33 minutes, 30 seconds Yeah. Again see I would not speak too much into quarterly billing growth. 33:34 33 minutes, 34 seconds Again YTD growth in this segment is also about 9% or so. See sometimes in a quarter you know if somebody pays in advance you see higher billing growth. 33:42 33 minutes, 42 seconds sometimes uh you know renews get defer so you see lower billing growth uh I think YTD is uh you know it's not we not 33:50 33 minutes, 50 seconds seeing a sharp acceleration I would still say that you know we are in that 8 9% uh range for the year uh uh even in 33:59 33 minutes, 59 seconds in in the in the IT and BPM and tech segments okay that's quite clear my second 34:07 34 minutes, 7 seconds question is on the ad spends so you you did allude to ad spending moderate and 34:15 34 minutes, 15 seconds and that that is something you have delivered on this quarter. Now just to understand better, we've seen the 34:22 34 minutes, 22 seconds standalone ad spend to sales percentage remain very FMCG like in fact even FMCG 34:29 34 minutes, 29 seconds companies are spending much less now right from an ad spend to sales perspective. How should we think about 34:36 34 minutes, 36 seconds the intensity of advertising considering that uh a significant portion of the advertising for you is discretionary and 34:45 34 minutes, 45 seconds towards say branding rather than uh specifically to attract traffic. 34:54 34 minutes, 54 seconds So you see our uh ad spends have been sort of flattish of you know in no in the recruitment space but uh our ad 35:02 35 minutes, 2 seconds spend has actually grown this year in both the matrimony business and in the real estate business. Now uh while in uh 35:11 35 minutes, 11 seconds only you know I a lot of this spend is performance advertising some of it is brand advertising only the brand spend is discretionary the performance spend 35:20 35 minutes, 20 seconds is not so discretionary okay you can maybe still you know you know sort of okay moderate by 10 20% but it's not as 35:26 35 minutes, 26 seconds we can stop it totally um and what you're in in 9 acres um you know we are investing for growth we have been 35:35 35 minutes, 35 seconds gaining traffic share and uh our marketing spend is helping. We figured out a way to sort of make the marketing work for us. Um, and it's helping us 35:44 35 minutes, 44 seconds grow traffic share, grow supply, grow uh revenue share and we'll continue to uh to do that. Uh, in matchy also the ad 35:52 35 minutes, 52 seconds spend is not discretionary because you know it's u it's it's an integral part of our acquisition strategy uh and it's grown uh over time because again we've 36:01 36 minutes, 1 second been gaining share and we now want to extrate share growth in matrimony as well. uh so uh I I don't I don't 36:09 36 minutes, 9 seconds understand the FMC space so I don't know how they think about advertising but uh uh in all our verticles a large part of 36:16 36 minutes, 16 seconds the ad spend I would say is uh is uh performance based so you have to do it uh some of it is brand so that's more 36:24 36 minutes, 24 seconds discretionary and some of it is uh we are investing in the future to sort of gain share and to accelerate growth 36:32 36 minutes, 32 seconds okay is it possible for you to give a broad direction In terms of the ad spend across divisions like how much would No 36:40 36 minutes, 40 seconds be and what the other businesses is it possible to give color on that? Uh do we do that venit? Huh? 36:49 36 minutes, 49 seconds No m we generally do not. 36:52 36 minutes, 52 seconds For comparative reasons I think we don't want to give these numbers out. 36:58 36 minutes, 58 seconds Okay. But just for your but just for your reference these numbers as a percentage of revenue uh across businesses are very different. So these 37:06 37 minutes, 6 seconds would be much higher in 99 and Jan Sati in recruitment it will be much much lower than uh what you are referring to from a FMCG point of view. 37:15 37 minutes, 15 seconds Okay understood. And just to clarify again the performance marketing ad spends are largely in 99 acres and J1 37:22 37 minutes, 22 seconds shati while brand spends will be more in no is that how how it is? Uh no see there is some performance marketing 37:29 37 minutes, 29 seconds everywhere and there is some branding everywhere and then something we call inside inside as quasi branding. Uh so 37:37 37 minutes, 37 seconds it's like half performance half branding. Uh but across all our you know all in all our verticles we have all 37:44 37 minutes, 44 seconds kinds of spends uh but like Venit said as a percentage of sales or as ad spends are highest in Jivati followed by 99 acres followed by no. 37:54 37 minutes, 54 seconds Okay thanks. My last question is on uh AI. Now you did describe about the AI journey that you had in your core 38:03 38 minutes, 3 seconds businesses. Could you help us understand how some of your investy companies are leveraging on AI? How how are they using 38:12 38 minutes, 12 seconds it? I mean you gave the example of AI Rex for Noery and say in some of the other businesses as well but is it 38:21 38 minutes, 21 seconds possible for you to give us some case studies or some color on the investments that you have the VC investments and how 38:27 38 minutes, 27 seconds they are using AI are you there uh 38:35 38 minutes, 35 seconds uh sorry I'm here sorry sorry I yeah so how uh the we see investment using AI depends 38:43 38 minutes, 43 seconds It varies from company to company. Some companies in fact are AI first and some companies about AI. Uh others you know may or may not be using AI to the extent 38:52 38 minutes, 52 seconds that Noi is doing. No I think is very advanced. It's one of the I think one of the what I gather from other companies 38:59 38 minutes, 59 seconds and what I see is among Indian companies. No is perhaps the one of the most if not the most advanced company in 39:07 39 minutes, 7 seconds adoption usage of AI. uh the kind of team we have put up in no of more than 130 150 people you know doing AI uh and 39:15 39 minutes, 15 seconds ML uh there aren't too many other companies with that kind of capability having said that there are companies that are AI first and many other 39:23 39 minutes, 23 seconds startups have uh you know they do with five engineers or 10 engineers no got 150 130 to 150 um and it varies from 39:31 39 minutes, 31 seconds company to company uh but but but yes I mean but nowadays the business plans we see of fresh startups almost all of them 39:37 39 minutes, 37 seconds have an AI element to I think though if I may just add to what SI said I think one of the differences one of the between us and a lot of other 39:45 39 minutes, 45 seconds startups is that we are you know using deploying and using AI at scale right because we have the kind of data we have the kind of usage we have not many 39:53 39 minutes, 53 seconds startups have so while companies are AI native or AI first they're operating at a very small scale and I think it 40:00 40 minutes requires a different skill set uh to use AI at scale at the kind of scale we are using AI yeah 40:08 40 minutes, 8 seconds all All right, that's great. Thank you and all the very best. 40:12 40 minutes, 12 seconds Thanks a next question from Nikl from Noama. Nikl, go ahead and ask a question. 40:21 40 minutes, 21 seconds Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Uh, first question on uh profitability staff cost was down uh meaningfully this 40:29 40 minutes, 29 seconds quarter uh that led to better uh aida margin. Uh generally we don't see such dip in Q3. Was it due to internal 40:37 40 minutes, 37 seconds efficiency measure or and is it sustainable? 40:42 40 minutes, 42 seconds No, no, no. You know, I think again I would re not I would urge you to not read too much into quarterly numbers. 40:49 40 minutes, 49 seconds Look at the YTD number. Uh YTD margins in are more like 56 57% not Q3 was 59, 40:56 40 minutes, 56 seconds Q1 is 53. So I think um you know there are sometimes you numbers could be different because of incentive payouts set bonuses and so on and so forth. 41:06 41 minutes, 6 seconds Sometimes targets are met sometimes they're not met. So so and you know uh uh and normally for example a lot of our hiring you know when we hire from campus 41:15 41 minutes, 15 seconds a lot of these kids join in uh around Q3 end or Q4 end. So and then over time there's attrition. So I would not reach too too much into quarterly numbers. 41:26 41 minutes, 26 seconds Got it. Go by go by the YD number. 41:29 41 minutes, 29 seconds Got it. Uh second one on AI Rex. Uh I mean how we are monetizing it, how we are pricing it in general. 41:37 41 minutes, 37 seconds We are still experimenting. U like I said our focus you know you know we were trying to monetize but I think it's too 41:44 41 minutes, 44 seconds early. We should my view is that we should uh take it more aggressively to market. Let companies play with it. Uh let them use it, benefit from it. Uh revenue will follow. Got it. 41:56 41 minutes, 56 seconds Figure out how to monetize it. 41:58 41 minutes, 58 seconds Got it. Uh within the uh uh subsegments of recruitment, one segment that remain under pressure is uh third party 42:06 42 minutes, 6 seconds recruiter, right? And uh theoretically it also makes sense given how repetitive tasks are how inefficient and I mean 42:14 42 minutes, 14 seconds lower ROI you generate compared to platforms like no hypothetically can that segment which is 25% of revenue 42:22 42 minutes, 22 seconds remain under pressure given the company will look for more efficiency especially from hiring and the tools such as AI Rex 42:29 42 minutes, 29 seconds where you I mean you done 2,000 mandates can that scale and uh keep impacting this segment that on alternate scenario 42:38 42 minutes, 38 seconds you might benefit uh or get better monetization while that segment uh can remain under pressure. Hypothetically 42:47 42 minutes, 47 seconds I mean normally see if I you know for the last 25 years our revenue from consultants has been in the 25 to 27 28% 42:56 42 minutes, 56 seconds mark you know for some reason this doesn't change much right uh u in good 43:03 43 minutes, 3 seconds markets of course uh in you know if the hiring market is is is hot then of course companies tend to use uh consulting firms a lot more their fee 43:11 43 minutes, 11 seconds also goes up uh in you lukewarm market companies would uh you know take their they take their own sweet time to hire 43:19 43 minutes, 19 seconds they're not in a hurry they first use platforms like no etc uh and only if they're not able to get success do they go to consultants and of course they 43:27 43 minutes, 27 seconds also drive down consultant fees right so uh so one it's of course that then the other thing you know it also depends on 43:34 43 minutes, 34 seconds who is able to uh adopt these new technologies faster so consultants are also smart you know they you know and 43:42 43 minutes, 42 seconds our ax you know we will I'm sure we'll offer to consultants also it's not as if we'll offer it to only companies right so if they are faster off the block if 43:50 43 minutes, 50 seconds they are because they are promoter run firms if they are you know they tend sometime often many of them tend to be nimble and agile and they are sort of they move quickly uh so if they adopt 43:59 43 minutes, 59 seconds these uh tools faster who the hell knows I mean they're uh you know they may become more efficient over time as well 44:06 44 minutes, 6 seconds um now companies will of course also uh adopt these tools and try and become more efficient So but you know what I've 44:15 44 minutes, 15 seconds seen over time is for some reason consultants are considered to be 25% of our revenue. 44:19 44 minutes, 19 seconds Sure. Uh just last one on pricing I think for two year we haven't uh increased at a blended level pricing 44:25 44 minutes, 25 seconds meaningfully. uh can that pricing uh increase going ahead with the initiative such as AIX uh with initiative where we 44:34 44 minutes, 34 seconds are pushing uh no top tier at a blended level can pricing grow let's say at par with mid to high single digit type uh 44:42 44 minutes, 42 seconds which we were doing earlier it can and you know but it's just so it's easier to do it uh if you offer uh 44:50 44 minutes, 50 seconds more value ads uh to companies right uh and it's easier to do it in a hotter market in a hot recruitment market, it's 44:58 44 minutes, 58 seconds harder to uh push pricing um uh you know when companies are not hiring a lot of people right uh because they take their 45:07 45 minutes, 7 seconds time uh you know they can wait they negotiate we have quarterly targets to meet sales people are incentivized on quarterly quotas and so on uh so they 45:15 45 minutes, 15 seconds end up giving discounts sometimes so what we've seen in the past is that in hot markets we are able to take prices 45:22 45 minutes, 22 seconds up faster uh but yes over a period of time. See if you take a a longer period then you know price increases tend to be 45:30 45 minutes, 30 seconds in the range of the price increase tends to be in the range of 56% peranom. 45:34 45 minutes, 34 seconds Yeah, completely agree but more in short to medium-term because I don't think we are seeing our market anytime soon at least that is what it looks like that's 45:43 45 minutes, 43 seconds why can at a blended level using uh even last time I asked the same question that can the premium uh hiring be monetized 45:52 45 minutes, 52 seconds uh in a different way where you can maybe charge it different way so at a blended level we can increase pricing despite of market it is where it is yeah 46:00 46 minutes yeah yeah so if this if more uh premium hiring happening starts to happen through our platform. Mhm. 46:06 46 minutes, 6 seconds Then even for the same volume, we'll be able to get higher value, right? Got it. 46:13 46 minutes, 13 seconds Uh but it has to materialize. 46:16 46 minutes, 16 seconds Got it. Got it. Uh that's it for my side. Thank you so much. Good luck for coming. 46:22 46 minutes, 22 seconds Thanks, Nikil. Next question is from Vijit Chan from City. Vij, go ahead and ask your question. 46:29 46 minutes, 29 seconds Yeah. Hi, thank you for the opportunity. 46:31 46 minutes, 31 seconds Uh my first question um you know so uh uh is Noir 360 Pro targeted you know 46:39 46 minutes, 39 seconds more towards the mid segment or the premium segment of the market and you know uh uh any you know any color you 46:47 46 minutes, 47 seconds can give on you know adoption there. I mean in general the job market I think as to what you mentioned in the midsegment is challenging. Uh LinkedIn premium seems to be a similar product. 46:58 46 minutes, 58 seconds Is is that product seeing uh more adoption and you know any other color you can give on that? Uh that's my first question. 47:05 47 minutes, 5 seconds Sorry I don't have uh segmental numbers for uh for uh 360 but uh in generally at 47:14 47 minutes, 14 seconds least in the past I don't have the latest numbers. Um you know we uh you know there used to be higher adoption 47:21 47 minutes, 21 seconds amongst uh more experienced professionals. 47:25 47 minutes, 25 seconds Okay. Correct. But I don't have the latest numbers only. 47:28 47 minutes, 28 seconds Fair enough. The second question was kind of related. So you know with this uh so assuming that you know this trend 47:35 47 minutes, 35 seconds where uh you know uh you have more growth momentum in the premium segment and uh say in the value segment and you 47:45 47 minutes, 45 seconds know there's this whole uh debate on whether it whether you know AI pushes people up the pyramid curve so to say. 47:52 47 minutes, 52 seconds Uh so in general do you need to uh rethink product you know beyond uh say 48:00 48 minutes the agentic or just to kind of cater to the mid and premium segment a little bit better from a recruiter point of view. I mean uh LinkedIn is obviously a very 48:09 48 minutes, 9 seconds different form factor of what they provide to recruiters than what you do. 48:15 48 minutes, 15 seconds uh and uh if uh the job market is shifting that way, do you shift more towards LinkedIn model or is there a third approach 48:23 48 minutes, 23 seconds you know so good question see in uh like we've just launched no top tier so within no we've launched a no top tier 48:31 48 minutes, 31 seconds that's meant for uh premium job seekers and it's meant for recruiters who are looking to hire premium job seekers and we're trying to provide a differentiated experience uh to both job seekers and 48:40 48 minutes, 40 seconds recruiters in this segment on no uh we're doing a little differently from LinkedIn uh early days you know but uh 48:47 48 minutes, 47 seconds what I can tell you is that u uh CV views which is one of the metrics we track right on our platform uh uh CV 48:56 48 minutes, 56 seconds view growth uh in no top tier is higher than CV growth uh for the platform as a 49:02 49 minutes, 2 seconds whole right uh and of course we are also uh uh working hard on improving our u 49:10 49 minutes, 10 seconds you know vertical uh offerings like IM jobs and and high-risk. We built high-risisk over the last couple of years. It targets premium tech talent. 49:18 49 minutes, 18 seconds Uh and we've got IM jobs which targets premium MBA talent. Uh so we are also building and trying to uh improve these vertical offerings. Uh uh of course 49:27 49 minutes, 27 seconds there are some people who are on both IM jobs and no but there are enough who are only on IM jobs and not on no enough who are only on high and not taking them to 49:36 49 minutes, 36 seconds uh these offerings to recruiters are in in the premium segment. we have uh headroom uh to grow our share, right? 49:44 49 minutes, 44 seconds Because we're not as dominant as we are in the middle segment. Uh so so there's an opportunity here. We're working hard 49:51 49 minutes, 51 seconds on it. Let's see where we end up uh in the next 12 to 18 months. Uh yeah. So do you have a second question? Sorry. 50:00 50 minutes Yeah. Yeah. So I mean uh I I think I was just trying to get a sense of you know uh so you mentioned IM jobs highrisisk no top tier. I mean is is there a you 50:09 50 minutes, 9 seconds know uh are do they kind of get clubed together into a single uh offering either perhaps 50:18 50 minutes, 18 seconds you already have a single offering to recruiters and these are different platforms for candidates. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether you 50:25 50 minutes, 25 seconds know the the whole product here uh uh needs um some kind of a rethink or retweak uh to kind of address go to market better. 50:35 50 minutes, 35 seconds Yeah. So, so you know, see there's stuff you're experimenting with. So, they are they are separate platforms and there are some people who use only high-risk 50:43 50 minutes, 43 seconds and only uh IM jobs and don't use no and vice versa. But we are also trying to 50:50 50 minutes, 50 seconds sort of uh you know develop this whole concept of a nori talent crowd where if you you know if you're a recruiter on no 50:57 50 minutes, 57 seconds you also get to see the other platforms and use them. But early days there so we experimenting with it but early days. 51:04 51 minutes, 4 seconds Got it. And one related question uh so you know you said premium hiring is doing well. I know GCC's is doing well. 51:11 51 minutes, 11 seconds There would be safe to assume that it's kind of an overlap there right to a certain extent. Yeah there'll be some overlap for sure. 51:17 51 minutes, 17 seconds Yeah. Yeah. And the last bit on this front uh so you know in the presentation you've said that it uh direct IT 51:25 51 minutes, 25 seconds exposure for you now is 25% and including consultants is now 30 35%. Now I think uh if I'm right the including 51:34 51 minutes, 34 seconds consultants part has come off because uh it used to be 50% of consultant business was it and now it looks like it's more 51:43 51 minutes, 43 seconds or less a third. So is there a shift happening there? Um see the this is my sense is see this is 51:50 51 minutes, 50 seconds you know if the case right now but let's say if it hiring were to come back to the bank then you know your consultants will again go back to IT companies and 51:58 51 minutes, 58 seconds start hiring for them. So consultants are nimble, they agile, they sort of move where the hiring moves to. So if there's a lot of IT hiring, they have they put more people onto IT hiring. If 52:06 52 minutes, 6 seconds they on the other hand, they don't see action on the IT front, they move into other segments. So uh yeah, so 52:14 52 minutes, 14 seconds and just to add to it, uh Vijit, so we have also moved from three segments to four segments. We are now calling out GCC separately as a segment 52:21 52 minutes, 21 seconds and GCC hiring is not only IT uh there's a large part of GCC who hire nonIT talent as well. So therefore just 52:29 52 minutes, 29 seconds because the reporting structure as well is shift from that 50% to 15 35% that's that's another reason for that. 52:36 52 minutes, 36 seconds Uh okay got it got it understood. And one last question for me. Um so in terms of M&A uh you know what would be uh 52:45 52 minutes, 45 seconds areas you would prefer to go into I mean are we talking about other classified businesses? I think there are there may be a few up for grabs even in uh 52:54 52 minutes, 54 seconds categories where you're not present. uh or could it be in uh you know just uh technology or enterprise SAS or I mean 53:02 53 minutes, 2 seconds are are there any preferred areas where you where you think you would like to go? 53:07 53 minutes, 7 seconds See if you look at our track record, you know, the successful M&As that we pulled off have been very small ones, right? 53:13 53 minutes, 13 seconds So, we acquired a company called Makes Sense Technology. It was a technology company, Semantic Search, you know, many years ago. It worked out really well for us. Uh it was perhaps AI. It was not 53:22 53 minutes, 22 seconds called AI in those days, but it was early AI. Then uh you know, we acquired Ambition Box. Uh it was a small company when we acquired it a few years ago. 53:32 53 minutes, 32 seconds It's turned out um it's now bigger than class in India. So that's worked out well for us. And then a few years back we acquired IM jobs and highest IM jobs 53:41 53 minutes, 41 seconds highest was tiny at that time and that's also worked out well for us. Then uh a couple of years ago a few years ago we acquired ZM and do select these are 53:49 53 minutes, 49 seconds again small acquisitions more on uh SAS and assessment platforms uh still WIP 53:56 53 minutes, 56 seconds you know for us. So uh I think we'll continue to be open to the idea of you know acquireers acquiring for technology 54:05 54 minutes, 5 seconds acquiring products acquiring small businesses which we think we can scale you know given our distribution given our sales reach given our established customer base so these are acquisitions 54:13 54 minutes, 13 seconds we'll be open to uh or if something takes us into a slightly different segment like IM jobs and hires were you know we were weaker on the premium side 54:21 54 minutes, 21 seconds so we sort of uh bought these companies we are doing jobware internally right uh that's a blue collar uh play So let's 54:28 54 minutes, 28 seconds see how that plays out. You know we but tomorrow if there's something interesting on the gig side or you know if there are other areas that you think are likely to grow faster then we'll be 54:37 54 minutes, 37 seconds more than open to acquisitions in those in those segments. uh that's in jobs and similarly in real estate and uh in matrimony you acquired isle you know so 54:45 54 minutes, 45 seconds matrimony in jivadi is more about matrimonials while is more dating for matrimony so it's a little more it's a little different from and while is a 54:53 54 minutes, 53 seconds regional dating platform so in the in the in the businesses in the verticles we operate we will continue to do these 55:00 55 minutes small acquisitions in adjacent areas um you know to um you know because if especially if they give us especially 55:07 55 minutes, 7 seconds there there are you know they help us build technology mode or they they help us take a new they give us a new product which we think we can scale 10x uh by 55:15 55 minutes, 15 seconds taking it to market through our sales system or if they help us acquire a new capability which will be useful over time. Uh so these are the kind of we are 55:24 55 minutes, 24 seconds constantly on the lookout for the big M&A is different. Uh it's opportunistic you know uh we haven't done any big M&A 55:31 55 minutes, 31 seconds till now. Uh uh in some sectors consolidation makes sense but there aren't too many companies. Uh we are unlikely to do a major diversification. 55:40 55 minutes, 40 seconds Uh it's not ruled out ever but unlikely in the near future. 55:45 55 minutes, 45 seconds Got it. Got it. Great. Thank you. Those were my questions. Thank you everyone. Thanks. Next question from Ankur from JP Morgan. 55:54 55 minutes, 54 seconds Ankur, go ahead and ask your question. 56:03 56 minutes, 3 seconds Ankor, you are there. 56:06 56 minutes, 6 seconds So he's not there. So next question from Sophil from JM Financial. Sapnil, go ahead and ask your question. 56:15 56 minutes, 15 seconds Hi uh thanks for the opportunity. Uh my first question is to hit uh and hit if I look at your historical uh uh uh revenue 56:24 56 minutes, 24 seconds breakup. We used to mention revenue by product type and uh and that revenue is to contribute roughly around 2/3 of our 56:32 56 minutes, 32 seconds uh B2B revenue in the noy business. Now the question out here is like uh assuming uh and I'm presuming this this 56:40 56 minutes, 40 seconds is basically you uh uh the revenue was so high because people used to download the CVS a lot more given they used to do 56:47 56 minutes, 47 seconds it in volumes assuming tomorrow because of AI the access required by the 56:54 56 minutes, 54 seconds companies reduces meaningfully uh right uh will uh is there a possibility that 57:02 57 minutes, 2 seconds the companies will also want to re renegotiate on the pricing of the subscriptions that that they pay for. Uh just to give you an example, if I were 57:10 57 minutes, 10 seconds paying X amount for 100 rums and tomorrow I need just 80 rs will uh will the companies come back to you and say 57:17 57 minutes, 17 seconds that you know on a per rum basis the I don't need to pay so the same way that that I used to pay in the past. So I'm 57:25 57 minutes, 25 seconds just coming from a risk perspective can you just help us address per resume pricing may not change. Okay. 57:32 57 minutes, 32 seconds uh but yeah if companies uh you know if consumption if if you know x number of résumés were being accessed till let's say last year and that number starts to 57:40 57 minutes, 40 seconds fall you know then of course u uh volume will go down right but not pricing necessarily 57:49 57 minutes, 49 seconds and and any any any uh discussion you had with your clients on this uh uh of late because yeah 57:58 57 minutes, 58 seconds yeah you know so you know this happens all every time every year so there are some clients who buy more uh some clients may if they anticipate lower 58:05 58 minutes, 5 seconds hiring uh they downgrade. So uh so this happens all the time. Yeah. This this been happening for several years now. In a good market most clients tend to 58:15 58 minutes, 15 seconds consume more you know conversion rates also fall. So when you know you may see 100 rums and make two offers and you may not be able to hire anybody because the 58:23 58 minutes, 23 seconds market is so hot in a in a lukewarm market you may make offers and people join. So conversion rates are also better. So this is something which 58:30 58 minutes, 30 seconds happens um all the time. Yeah. So and of course a lot depends on how the company is doing as well. There are companies which shut down every year. There are 58:36 58 minutes, 36 seconds companies which downsize sometimes. So they know that they will need to hire fewer people. There are companies are growing rapidly. Let's say new GCC sets up shop. They know they're going to 58:45 58 minutes, 45 seconds expand rapidly so they buy more. So you know this is something we encounter every year. On the whole uh our volumes have been holding and like I mentioned 58:54 58 minutes, 54 seconds earlier uh we are seeing modest growth in the in the middle segment uh and higher growth in uh premium and and and 59:02 59 minutes, 2 seconds the lower segments. Uh company by company things vary of course every year. 59:08 59 minutes, 8 seconds Got it. and and any thoughts on the hiring budgets that these companies would have right now going I'm talking about the near to medium-term and I'm 59:17 59 minutes, 17 seconds not talking about long-term story here but any color on that side like how what are you getting feedback you're getting from the clients 59:23 59 minutes, 23 seconds see my sense is that see if the the nonIT market uh I think uh has been slow because 59:32 59 minutes, 32 seconds uh the economy has been slow at least in the sectors where we get a lot of revenue from and if that if things were to turn there we we should see an uptick 59:40 59 minutes, 40 seconds uh going forward. uh it you know I don't know the jury is still out here I there is so much noise there's so much 59:48 59 minutes, 48 seconds confusion u you know a lot will depend on IT companies and how they're thinking about um uh you know and and the kind of 59:56 59 minutes, 56 seconds demand that they're seeing on their at their end right GCC's uh the see the big ones may come under pressure for some 1:00:04 1 hour, 4 seconds time if they if they start if these companies like the big ones start laying off in the US they for for a time they may not want to hire in India but the 1:00:11 1 hour, 11 seconds small ones which have just set up shop in the last 2 three four years where their India headcount is maybe still less than 20% or 15% of their global 1:00:19 1 hour, 19 seconds headcount will want to continue to scale to get to that number that's the way I see it yeah got it and just one question on your uh 1:00:28 1 hour, 28 seconds unique clients built that number seems to be growing quarter and quarter so exactly where this uh new clients are 1:00:36 1 hour, 36 seconds coming from which sectors and uh because it seems that these guys uh help you helping you offset some of the impact from the uh traditional sectors. Yeah. 1:00:47 1 hour, 47 seconds So we've expanded our sales operation to more cities. We are we have launched some premium offerings on no we are uh 1:00:56 1 hour, 56 seconds uh uh so so but you know in most of these new clients they start small and and there's also a lot of churn in this 1:01:04 1 hour, 1 minute, 4 seconds segment. Um our pools are low when they start. Now over time some of them sort of you know uh up their game and they start hiring more people they start 1:01:12 1 hour, 1 minute, 12 seconds using us more um uh but yes we put in a little more effort uh over the last 12 months to get more new customers into 1:01:19 1 hour, 1 minute, 19 seconds the system uh so uh and one way we've done it is by making by having a premium offering on no so a lot of that 1:01:28 1 hour, 1 minute, 28 seconds encourages a lot of smallmemes to try no and then we try and upsell to some of them 1:01:36 1 hour, 1 minute, 36 seconds okay and just the last one on the margin side. So in the past I think you have said that if your billings uh stays around low teens uh margin expansion in 1:01:45 1 hour, 1 minute, 45 seconds the noy business will be a difficult task. Uh any any revised thoughts on that side like would you uh would you 1:01:54 1 hour, 1 minute, 54 seconds take any efficiency efforts to you know at least optimize on the margin side uh if billing stays where it is today? 1:02:02 1 hour, 2 minutes, 2 seconds Thanks. 1:02:04 1 hour, 2 minutes, 4 seconds Uh no I think uh see we there are some investments which we need to make like we are losing you know uh approximately 1:02:12 1 hour, 2 minutes, 12 seconds 50 crores a year in our job business which is our blue collar business that's a business we are building for the future we will continue to invest in this business for the next few years 1:02:20 1 hour, 2 minutes, 20 seconds right uh so this is not something we want to cut down on um you know similarly we will continue to make AI 1:02:28 1 hour, 2 minutes, 28 seconds investments there are capabilities we need to build there is stuff we need to do uh uh you know there could be a temporary slowdown in hiring uh you know 1:02:36 1 hour, 2 minutes, 36 seconds but um you know it's important that we uh are ready you know uh when hiring comes back and uh we are able to grab 1:02:44 1 hour, 2 minutes, 44 seconds the opportunities which AI is sort of uh bringing our way so we will continue to make these investments marketing investments we can play with a little bit here and there they don't really 1:02:53 1 hour, 2 minutes, 53 seconds matter in the short term um it's not our headcount will not go up too much right uh so in if we continue if we can grow 1:03:01 1 hour, 3 minutes, 1 second in the teens uh we'll be able to maintain and improve our margins. Uh if we grow in single digits uh then you know uh we might lose some margin. Let's see. 1:03:15 1 hour, 3 minutes, 15 seconds Got it. Thanks a lot for answering those questions and all the best. 1:03:25 1 hour, 3 minutes, 25 seconds Anand you're on mute. 1:03:27 1 hour, 3 minutes, 27 seconds Sorry. Thanks. Thanks. Uh Vive is back with a follow-up question from Ambit. Vive go ahead and ask your question. 1:03:35 1 hour, 3 minutes, 35 seconds Yes, thanks Anand for the follow-up opportunity. Uh two questions. So one is Zoam and D select. They don't seem to be 1:03:43 1 hour, 3 minutes, 43 seconds growing quite fast. What's the challenge there? In fact, you your billing there 1:03:49 1 hour, 3 minutes, 49 seconds is growing at a slower pace than the core business which has n number of pressures. What's going on? 1:03:58 1 hour, 3 minutes, 58 seconds Well, we I'll tell you what's happening. 1:03:59 1 hour, 3 minutes, 59 seconds See we have been uh experimenting over the last few quarters with different goto market and you know bundling 1:04:06 1 hour, 4 minutes, 6 seconds strategies right uh and uh for our newer offerings right and uh so and you know I 1:04:15 1 hour, 4 minutes, 15 seconds I think it'll take a while maybe a quarter or two for the dust to settle down on that front till we get it right and uh I think that's what is perhaps 1:04:23 1 hour, 4 minutes, 23 seconds creating this uh whatever this issue that you're seeing you you've rightly identified it uh you know uh we're 1:04:31 1 hour, 4 minutes, 31 seconds trying to figure out whether clients uh you know so sometimes to get a higher billing we push these offerings on onto customers we want to see whether uh 1:04:38 1 hour, 4 minutes, 38 seconds customers really want them and in in some cases we we when we do that we don't see a lot of adoption so we trying to dial back a little bit so we are sort 1:04:46 1 hour, 4 minutes, 46 seconds of playing around with all this to see what is the best way to take some of these uh new offerings to market and 1:04:52 1 hour, 4 minutes, 52 seconds that is resulting in this uh movement things will settle down maybe in a couple of quarters 1:04:59 1 hour, 4 minutes, 59 seconds Okay. Excellent. The second one is on job hair. Now you you said that you're spending some 50 60 cr there on an annual basis. 1:05:09 1 hour, 5 minutes, 9 seconds So how how has been the offtake? How many cities have you gone to? Have you been able to do any detailed 1:05:17 1 hour, 5 minutes, 17 seconds perhaps pilots or monetization with some of your associate companies also? I mean Zamato for example or Eternal for 1:05:25 1 hour, 5 minutes, 25 seconds example has a lot of feet on street as far as the rider fleet is concerned where you might be able to experiment 1:05:32 1 hour, 5 minutes, 32 seconds with job hair. So if you can detail some progress sector wise and also market wise to help us understand the 1:05:40 1 hour, 5 minutes, 40 seconds scalability of job say from a 3 five year perspective that would be great. 1:05:45 1 hour, 5 minutes, 45 seconds Yeah. So uh you know excellent so question. So I'll tell you see how we have approached job is we've been working we worked very hard on the product we wanted to get the product 1:05:53 1 hour, 5 minutes, 53 seconds market fit right and I think we are past that point uh we then we uh wanted to 1:06:00 1 hour, 6 minutes get the playbook right uh you know the playbook of taking it to market and the scaling playbook so what we did over the 1:06:07 1 hour, 6 minutes, 7 seconds last 18 months was to double down in one city which is so we chose Delhi NCR because that's where we are based and said let's try and see if we can make 1:06:15 1 hour, 6 minutes, 15 seconds job epic in Delhi NCR Uh so uh so now the good news is that 1:06:22 1 hour, 6 minutes, 22 seconds we believe that job is now the biggest sort of player in this segment right uh 1:06:29 1 hour, 6 minutes, 29 seconds in NCR. So we are bigger than any other player and we have started monetizing also in Delhi NCR. Now on monetization monetization normally follows with the 1:06:37 1 hour, 6 minutes, 37 seconds lag of a year. So u we are not as the not the largest still but we are uh we are sort of growing month on month. uh 1:06:45 1 hour, 6 minutes, 45 seconds so our marketing efforts our sales efforts a lot of our all our efforts are focused on NCR for the last 12 18 months not that we don't have presence 1:06:52 1 hour, 6 minutes, 52 seconds elsewhere we still have we have presence in many cities but we were more sort of focused on uh like becoming uh like a 1:06:59 1 hour, 6 minutes, 59 seconds leader in in NCR uh now that we are more confident we will over the next 12 months uh take this playbook to other 1:07:08 1 hour, 7 minutes, 8 seconds cities so we'll and and we may we may not go to 60 cities or 80 cities in in in the next 12 months But we will 1:07:15 1 hour, 7 minutes, 15 seconds perhaps take this uh model and uh to Bombay and Bangalore and a few other cities and see if we can become a leader 1:07:22 1 hour, 7 minutes, 22 seconds in those markets and then over time we'll take it to other other cities. 1:07:26 1 hour, 7 minutes, 26 seconds That's the way we're approaching it. Um uh now this is a market where there's a lot of volume but our pools are low. 1:07:34 1 hour, 7 minutes, 34 seconds It's not easy to make money. Uh but it's important for the long run. 1:07:39 1 hour, 7 minutes, 39 seconds Strategically it's important because it keeps other players out. um uh in the short term as well and because once people get in then they may move move 1:07:47 1 hour, 7 minutes, 47 seconds into other segments. uh long-term it should be possible to make money uh in this space but like is the case with any internet business you need to be number 1:07:55 1 hour, 7 minutes, 55 seconds one or a number two player to make any money right so that that logic will hold for for this segment as well so um now 1:08:03 1 hour, 8 minutes, 3 seconds uh what will success look like if in five years or five six years this becomes 10 15% of no 1:08:11 1 hour, 8 minutes, 11 seconds India then I think that is what success will look like in job Okay, that's that's very helpful. My last question is to Sanjie. 1:08:23 1 hour, 8 minutes, 23 seconds So Sanjie, how is the operating environment like for startup funding? 1:08:28 1 hour, 8 minutes, 28 seconds What are the kind of ideas you're getting? And also some of the investies of uh Infoedge Venture Venture Fund one. 1:08:36 1 hour, 8 minutes, 36 seconds You had uh updated us about a couple of years back that these companies are securing funding from external investors 1:08:44 1 hour, 8 minutes, 44 seconds as well in later stages. Is that improving at the margins or getting worse? Uh please help us understand the 1:08:52 1 hour, 8 minutes, 52 seconds overall funding landscape not just at seed stage but maybe series BC as well. 1:08:58 1 hour, 8 minutes, 58 seconds Thank you. So u no without sort of taking specific names in the portfolio because we'd rather announce that in a 1:09:05 1 hour, 9 minutes, 5 seconds planned manner uh look the winners are being sorted out and the winners are 1:09:12 1 hour, 9 minutes, 12 seconds moving ahead and getting further funding and uh you know both in you know in fund one, fund two and one or two even in fund three uh pretty pretty pretty soon 1:09:21 1 hour, 9 minutes, 21 seconds actually. Uh now a few were hit uh by the tariffs by the 1:09:29 1 hour, 9 minutes, 29 seconds US tariffs because they did crossber business u but they adjusted adapted went to other markets uh sometimes 1:09:37 1 hour, 9 minutes, 37 seconds raised prices and sort of founded the the the demand was still sticky. Um so actually they've come out of it fairly well and now hopefully with tariffs 1:09:46 1 hour, 9 minutes, 46 seconds going down they should be back in business. Okay. So I would say about maybe uh you know out of 27 maybe 10 or 1:09:54 1 hour, 9 minutes, 54 seconds 15 have got serious follow on rounds and you know and uh some of them are doing fairly well 1:10:01 1 hour, 10 minutes, 1 second but no the business what you know what we actually need is four or five big winners out of the first fund to really return the fund and you know make a good 1:10:08 1 hour, 10 minutes, 8 seconds multiple on it and we had a total of 28 or 29 companies in front one. 1:10:17 1 hour, 10 minutes, 17 seconds Okay that's that's very helpful. Thank you so much. 1:10:22 1 hour, 10 minutes, 22 seconds Thanks Vik and Vinnie. This was the last question we had for the evening. Yeah. 1:10:28 1 hour, 10 minutes, 28 seconds Thank you everyone for joining. On behalf of Info Edge, uh we now conclude this conference call. 1:10:34 1 hour, 10 minutes, 34 seconds Everyone have a great evening. Bye-bye. Thank you so much everyone.