New-York based media and information services firm News Corp has invested $30 million (Rs 180 crore) in real-estate marketing portal PropTiger.com, according to a press statement.
In addition to existing investors, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures have also invested another $7million (Rs 42 crore) in the company.
News Corp has a substantial presence in online real estate through its ownership of Move, Inc., operator of realtor.com and its majority stake in REA Group Limited, operator of the leading Australian residential property website,
“We are delighted to have News Corp as our partner. Under the leadership of Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Chief Executive Robert Thomson, News Corp brings digital real estate know-how, product experience and content expertise that will help us drive product innovation, customer engagement and traffic growth,” said Dhruv Agarwala co-founder of PropTiger.com.
In connection with the investment, Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President, Strategy at News Corp has joined the board of PropTiger.com’s Singapore-based parent company, Elara Technologies Pte Ltd.
PropTiger.com was founded in February 2011 Dhruv Agarwala and Kartik Varma, classmates from Harvard Business School, along with Prashan Agarwal, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian School of Business. It has over 250 developer partners who market their new developments through the online platform
The portal has sold over 10,000 properties worth over $1 billion so far, according to Agarwala.
“Lack of accurate information is a major challenge for home buyers. Since inception we have made a significant investment in ensuring quality of data and introduced multiple data led innovations, such as livability scores to compare properties in a neighborhood, a property portfolio tracker to keep a watch on performance of property investments, price estimates to bring transparency in the resale market and up-to-date construction and neighborhood pictures,” added Mr Prashan Agarwal, co-founder.
"PropTiger.com is the one real estate portal in India that truly addresses customers’ pain points by providing a tailored end-to-end experience through the entire customer journey beginning from search to selection and all the way to transaction closure," said Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel Partners.
“Mobile properties of PropTiger.com have performed extremely well since launch. Its traffic from mobile has already reached 40 per cent of its total traffic. With growing numbers of mobile internet users in India, we are excited about PropTiger.com’s ability to scale rapidly,” said Ravi Adusumalli, Managing Partner, SAIF Partners.
It is estimated that India will be a $158 billion residential real estate market by 2020. This provides significant opportunity for growth in a market where already an increasing number of home-buyers are relying on the Internet to make their purchases.