"Prosus, the global consumer internet group of Naspers, has committed Rs 100 crore to the Indian government's response to the Covid-19 crisis. The donation will be made to the 'Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund'," the company said in a statement.
Prosus has invested around USD 5 billion (about Rs 37,900 crore) in Indian technology companies since 2005. Its portfolio includes Brainly, Byju's, Codecademy, eMAG, Honor, iFood, LazyPay, letgo, Meesho, Movile, OLX, PayU, Red Dot Payments, Remitly, SimilarWeb, SoloLearn, Swiggy, and Udemy.
"These are unprecedented times and we want to play our part in contributing to the efforts underway in India. By working with government and civil society, we hope to help India overcome this very difficult period," Prosus and Naspers Group CEO Bob van Dijk said.
In addition to its direct contribution to the PM CARES Fund, Prosus is working closely with the companies it partners with to support measures designed to help Indians affected by the situation, the statement said.
Byju's has offered its learning platform for free in India until the end of April to help parents support their children's learning while away from school.
On the other hand, Olx is allowing advertisements to stay on its site for an additional 30 days, at no extra cost and PayU has built a platform to enable any brand in India to start raising funds from its customers for the PM CARES Fund.
"Swiggy has launched a campaign to donate meals to persons in need in India. The public can also donate to this campaign. The campaign is currently donating approximately 35,000 meals per day, with a goal of raising this to 500,000 meals per day as soon as possible," the statement said. PRS ANU