Mumbai, Jan. 10: PropTiger.com and Housing.com are merging to create the country's largest online real estate services company, which will raise $55 million from News Corp-backed REA Group and an affiliate of SoftBank Group.
Sources said in an all-stock deal, Housing.com had been valued at around $75 million, taking the total valuation of the combined entity to $280 million.
As part of the transaction, REA Group will invest $50 million, while the affiliate of SoftBank Group will put in $5 million in the new entity.
A statement said News Corp would remain the largest shareholder of PropTiger. It also owns 61.6 per cent of REA Group. Representatives of REA and SoftBank will join the board of the joint entity, which will continue to be chaired by a News Corp representative.
Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder and chief executive of PropTiger, will serve as CEO of the new company.
The statement said Jason Kothari, chief executive of Housing.com, had decided to move on to pursue other opportunities in the Indian internet space. He will continue as an adviser to the new entity till February.
Henry Ruiz, chief digital officer of REA Group, Simon Barnett, sales director of News Corp, and Jonathan Bullock, managing director of SoftBank Group International, will join Raju Narisetti (chair), Ravi Adusumalli from SAIF Partners and Prashanth Prakash from Accel Partners as investor directors on the board of the new company.
It is expected that the entity will draw strengths from PropTiger, Housing.com and Makaan.com to offer a holistic experience to consumers, real estate developments, brokers and homeowners.
PropTiger is the largest online residential real estate brokerage firm, which has completed transactions worth $1.5 billion since its inception in 2011. Housing.com is one of the country's popular online platform that receives over four million visits every month.
The statement said compared with last year, Housing.com's revenues had grown 400 per cent on a monthly basis, while costs had decreased 70 per cent. Platform visits have grown 215 per cent.
The new entity will offer a full range of online and offline services in real estate, which include personalised search, virtual viewing, site visits, legal and financial diligence, negotiations, property registration, home loans and post- sales service.
