Naspers' Ecosystem and AI Pivot: From Dream to Reality
Ecosystem becomes a reality
Naspers (via Prosus) reported FY26 results with a clear, confident narrative: the ecosystem that was once a plan is now generating real numbers. Fabricio Bloisi, Prosus CEO, opened the call by emphasizing that the Latin American ecosystem is not just about iFood but a full platform spanning travel, grocery, fintech, and ads. He highlighted that “the ecosystem besides food delivery today has revenues of $1.5 billion growing more than 40%” — Fabricio Bloisi, CEO · 2026-06-29, and that adjacencies now represent more than half of revenue. This is a significant evolution from prior years when food delivery dominated almost entirely.
The Large commerce model (LCM) is at the core of this ecosystem, trained on Prosus's own data to power cross-selling and personalization. Diego Barreto, iFood CEO, explained how the loyalty program (Club) drives frequency and extends into new verticals: “Grocery already has around 50% of orders originated by Club clients” — Diego Barreto, CEO · 2026-06-29, and adjacent businesses like fintech and pharmacy are growing at triple-digit rates. The synergy with Despegar—where 21% of Brazil revenue now comes from cross-sell—exemplifies how the ecosystem is creating value beyond pure food delivery.
Just Eat turnaround
One of the most striking changes is the repositioning of Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) as an AI-first, growth-focused business. Roberto Gandolfo, JET CEO (and former iFood leader), described a new chapter: testing and learning in a cohort of cities delivered over 25% growth, and the plan is to scale this across the portfolio. The company is unifying its tech platform and deploying LCM to cut costs—cost to identify user profiles is now 90% cheaper.
This is a stark contrast to just seven months ago, when Fabricio admitted, “Jet is not growing over the last few years, as you know, obviously we know that's true” — Eoin Ryan, Investor Relations or Host · 2025-11-24. Now, the focus is on order growth, not fees, and capital allocation discipline—exiting markets like Australia and Denmark to concentrate on density.
Competition and capital allocation
The competitive landscape in Brazil is a key overhang. Chinese entrant Keeta has been spending aggressively, but Prosus maintains that its structure is resilient. Diego noted that “On competition in Brazil - we haven't seen anything different from what we knew in how logistics is operated or how algorithms work” — Fabricio Bloisi, CEO · 2026-06-29. Yet management expects EBITDA to be roughly flat in FY27 due to investments in iFood and JET, a deliberate choice to prioritize growth and market leadership over near-term profit.
Capital allocation remains a central theme. The $5 billion buyback is funded by Tencent sales and non-core asset divestments, including Meituan. CFO Nico Marais emphasized that core headline earnings per share grew 24% (vs 13% headline) due to buyback efficiency. This approach—selling lower-growth assets to increase exposure to Tencent—was already hinted at in the Nov 2025 call, where Fabricio said, “I think AI is going to have impact on classifieds, on e-commerce, on food delivery, in investing in analyst reports from banks, AI is going to have impact everywhere” — Fabricio Bloisi, CEO · 2025-11-24.
AI as the differentiator
The most forward-looking element is the agentic AI strategy. Agentic AI is no longer just a buzzword; Prosus has deployed Zapia, a consumer agent that can negotiate, book, and execute transactions. ToqanClaw, an internal agent platform with 70,000 agents, is already used by employees and being rolled out to restaurant partners. Fabricio is confident that “I reaffirm - I expect, and we will deliver, billions in profits, and we will get there for sure” — Fabricio Bloisi, CEO · 2026-06-29. The investment in Alan, an AI health assistant, signals broader ambitions in AI-enabled services.
Management positions this as a unique moat, combining loyalty program data, ecosystem frequency, and proprietary AI models. While the American tech giants are also building consumer agents, Fabricio argues that the integration with marketplaces (iFood, JET, Despegar) gives Prosus an edge.
The ecosystem was a dream one year ago, now it's a reality.
What changed at Naspers is not just the numbers but the strategic identity. From a holding company dependent on Tencent, it is transforming into an operating platform leveraging AI and ecosystem synergies. The challenge is execution—whether JET can truly scale and whether competition in Brazil will force a longer payback. But for now, the market has a clearer, more actionable story than ever before.