He has been called brash, irreverent and publicity hungry. But for Rahul Yadav, CEO and Founder of online real estate firm Housing.com, the recent controversies around his resignation and the public spat with investors are already a thing of the past.
Yadav’s target over the next two years is to make Housing the ‘Google’ for home searches. To do that, Yadav has embarked on a dual strategy — introduce a multitude of new features to enhance the user experience and expand the business rapidly.
Asked about his spat with investors, Yadav says he does not want to talk about it anymore. “We are focused on doing our job; those issues are behind us,” he said.
On May 13, Yadav took everyone by surprise by gifting his entire 4.5 per cent stake in the real estate portal, worth about ₹200 crore, to its 2,251 employees. He then challenged the founders of Zomato and Olacabs to do the same.
Many dubbed this a “publicity stunt”, while others speculated that the 26-year-old intends to quit the firm and start a new venture.
“This is a very, very serious issue but certain people with vested interests are making fun of it. I have no plans to move out of Housing, I haven’t even thought of it,” Yadav said, adding that the company is aiming to issue the shares to employees in a month. After the allocation, the founder will work as a salaried employee.
Yadav said that his focus would be on solving the larger issues in the real estate eco-system, such as meeting the demand-supply gap and addressing pricing issues.
The company will soon unveil new features, including online rental agreements and registration services.
Housing.com also plans to take steps to improve the quality of construction and home design across the country.
The map-based home search portal was started by a group of 12 students from IIT-Bombay in June 2012. It had raised funding in multiple rounds, including a recent $90-million round led by Japan’s SoftBank Internet and Media.
Yadav says that for now the company has enough cash and is not raising any additional funds. He, however, said Housing.com is looking at making a number of acquisitions as a part of its growth strategy.
To raise headcount In line with its expansion plans, Housing is planning to add another 500-600 employees by this year-end.
Speaking to BusinessLine, Ajay Nair, head of Human Resources, said: “We are hiring from all the top institutions globally. This year, we are going to the London School of Economics, London School of Business and Harvard. We can’t afford to hire just from within India if we want to become a global company.”
The real estate portal will increase its headcount to 4,000 over the next two years.