Prosus puts AI at the core of India strategy

Prosus is putting artificial intelligence at the center of its India strategy, linking fresh bets 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,” Bloisi 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 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 central to its AI-first plan. Since 2015, the group has invested $8.6 billion in more than 30 Indian companies spanning commerce, fintech, and AI-driven software. Its holdings include a controlling stake in Mindgate to strengthen unified payments interface (UPI) infrastructure, as well as positions in Mintifi, Bluestone, and Rapido.

Swiggy, Meesho, Urban Company, and Rapido are among the “key companies” in its portfolio, covering food and quick commerce, horizontal marketplaces, at-home services, and ride-hailing. The appeal, Prosus says, 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’s hybrid role as both investor and builder, it argues, lets it “drive meaningful impact in India’s digital transformation,” including embedding AI across its ecosystem.

“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.”

According to the report, Prosus’s AI systems already power logistics, trust and safety, marketing, customer support, and payments. Highlights include 30 million monthly orders routed through 25 million AI-generated optimal delivery paths, cutting costs by 16%; automated moderation of 95% of two million daily listings; and AI-led payment decisioning covering 60% of transactions with a 97% approval rate and 0.1% charge-backs.

In India, that toolkit is being scaled. Prosus points to Swiggy’s public listing in late 2024, which valued 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 profitability. Mindgate’s UPI technology is framed as a key enabler for deeper payments penetration, while Meesho and Urban Company tap shared AI engineering for pricing, logistics, and customer experience.

The group is also formalising governance, with its board adopting a responsible AI policy in FY25 covering design, monitoring, compliance, and bias checks, aligned with emerging laws such as the EU AI Act. Internally, it is pushing adoption through Toqan, an AI assistant used daily by over 20,000 employees, delivering an average productivity gain of 11%.

Across its portfolio, AI is deployed for recommendations, fraud detection, and predictive inventory management—tools the company calls “indispensable” to its platforms. Bloisi links this 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 puts the challenge in broader context, citing “two massive impacts”: geopolitical uncertainty and generational technological change. “We will try to navigate these… as best we can,” he writes, adding that results reflect “the benefits of a refined strategic focus” in light of global developments.

Prosus’s bet is that its AI-led operating model will give it a competitive edge in India’s scale-driven, fast-digitising market. The test now is whether those gains can deepen margins and compound value across a portfolio the group says is primed for multiple IPOs.