Friday, May 1, 2015

Newscorp-backed PropTiger.com acquires Makaan.com

Elara Technologies Pte. Ltd., which owns PropTiger.com, a digital real estate marketing and transactions services provider, has entered into a transaction with Makaan.com Private Limited, owner of Makaan.com, another property listings and classifieds player that was part of the Anupam Mittal-backed People Group, who also founded Shaadi.com.

The transaction, which brings Makaan.com and PropTiger.com platforms together, creates India’s only truly comprehensive online real-estate platform, one that will offer end-to-end services to home buyers, real estate developers, property brokers, banks and private equity investors.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Together, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com will provide home buyers with a powerful online real estate platform to guide them through the early stages of home search and identification and all the way until they have the keys to their dream home,” said Dhruv Agarwala, Co-founder & CEO, Proptiger.com “The fully assisted home buying experience will include being able to shortlist the right set of homes from a wide array of listings online, and then having a personalized service that helps with site visits, price negotiations, documentation, home financing, registration and post sales services.”

PropTiger.com currently provides a complete, hassle-free, home buying experience to homebuyers in India, starting with property search and site visits to home loan advice and assistance in the final registration of property. Since 2011, some 12,000 homes worth US$ 1.2 billion have been purchased through the Proptiger.com platform. It has a team of over 500 people including engineers, product experts and property advisors in eight major Indian cities.

PropTiger.com also provides real estate consulting and data services to institutions, such as real estate developers, private equity investors and banks. Its proprietary database contains detailed information and transaction data on India’s residential real estate sector in 20 major cities in India.  

Makaan.com, an iconic brand synonymous with homes, was founded in 2007, and is one of India’s pioneering real estate marketplaces for property buying, selling and renting, offering a diverse array of services for home owners & buyers, investors, property brokers and real estate developers. It has around 200,000 active property listings and relationships with 40,000 brokers in 50 Indian cities. Some 40% of Makaan.com’s traffic comes from mobile, which is the fastest growing gateway to Internet for users in India. It has one of the best consumer engagement and conversion rates in the industry.

“India’s home-buyers will now have the biggest database of real estate information and related online real estate services that will also offer end-to-end services in major cities nationwide,” added Aditya Verma, CEO, Makaan.com.  Following the transaction, Verma will report to Agarwala. 

The Makaan.com transaction continues PropTiger.com’s rapid growth and cements its evolution as India’s leading digital and mobile real-estate platform.

Earlier this month, PropTiger.com announced the acquisition of Bangalore-based Out of Box Interaction (OoBI), a pioneering digital interaction design company that specializes in displaying real estate projects in an efficient and immersive way.

In November 2014, global media, book publishing and digital real estate services company News Corp took a 25% stake in Elara, bringing proven expertise in digital real estate to PropTiger.com. In Australia, News Corp is 61.6% owner of REA, and in the United States, it owns Move, Inc., which runs Realtor.com.  News Corp’s portfolio has played an important role in the newspaper and publishing arena in India through its Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers businesses. 

Elara’s other major investors include SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizon Ventures.

Makaan.com was founded within People Group by entrepreneur and investor Anupam Mittal, whose pioneering digital ventures in India also include the matchmaking site Shaadi.com and the mobile content & commerce company Mauj Mobile.

 “In addition to being able to combine Makaan.com listings and PropTiger.com’s home buying services, we are delighted we can also now tap Anupam’s proven expertise in profitably engaging digital audiences in India,” said Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President, Strategy, for News Corp, who chairs Elara’s Singapore-based board.

“This transaction will help shape the future of the real estate ecosystem in India,” predicted Mittal. “During the past few years, India’s home-buyers have embraced digital platforms in a big way. Starting by creating the first and only full-stack property solution, the combination of Makaan.com and PropTiger.com is set to accelerate customer-focused innovations dramatically.”

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