Inside a Dalal Street darling and its 'multiverse of madness'

In a recent story , we delved into renowned market guru Raamdeo Agrawal's QGLP investing framework. This investment style assesses companies based on their quality, growth, longevity and price or QGLP. Among companies that made it through this checklist, Innovana Thinklabs caught our eye. And why would it not. The small-cap touts solid operating metrics and has consistently delivered an annual ROCE of over 25 per cent since FY17. The stock has been a market darling, multiplying investor wealth by a staggering 11 times in the last four years (as of May 18, 2024). Naturally, we decided to look into what Innovana does. But our research left us scratching our heads. It reminded us of the Oscar-winning Hollywood sci-fi flick 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' a name quite fitting for the company, too. What do they have in common? The absurdism. Wikipedia describes the film as an absurdist comedy-drama. Innovana evokes a similar imagery. Like the movie's protagonist, whose many parallel selves exist in multiple universes unaware of each other's existence, Innovana Thinklabs is a web of unrelated businesses, divorced of any synergies. In its first avatar, the company began operations as a software developer in 2015. Its product portfolio included applications like file openers, privacy protectors, ad-blockers, etc. This business remained its primary breadwinner until FY19. But the following year, it ventured into uncharted territories. It opened fitness gyms and began constructing residential properties. Absurd much? But wait, there's more. Come FY21, it began providing online astrology, tarot card readings, and started developing gaming studios. Another step into FY22, and it was selling banking products by forming