News Corp Invests into PropTiger.com, Enters Fast Growing Indian Digital Real Estate Sector
News Corp, the New-York based global media and information services company, has acquired a significant minority stake in the parent company of PropTiger.com, a leading online real estate marketing platform in India, for US$30 million.
In addition, existing investors, among whom are SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures, have agreed to add another US$7million to their current investment.
The full press release from News Corp is available at http://www.newscorp.com.
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 (“REA”) , operator of the leading Australian residential property website, realestate.com.au.
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“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 (“Elara”) .
“Raju's world class experience in managing digital businesses of The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, and his India expertise as founder and editor of Mint, now India's second-largest business newspaper, will add significant strength to the board of Elara”said Mr. Agarwala.
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PropTiger.com was founded in February 2011 by Mr 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. PropTiger.com has a presence in the major real estate markets in India and in a short span of time has become a trusted destination for Indians looking to purchase a home.
“PropTiger.com has over 250 developer partners who market their new developments through the online platform. We have established a solid track record of performance with at least 10,000 properties worth over US$1 billion having been purchased through PropTiger.com,” said Mr. 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% 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 US$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.
About News Corp
News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, cable network programming in Australia, digital real estate services, digital education, and pay-TV distribution in Australia. Headquartered in New York, the activities of News Corp are conducted primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. More information: http://www.newscorp.com.
About PropTiger.com
PropTiger.com leverages the power of technology and data to make the home buying experience rewarding and easy-to-use. It guides customers through the entire process of buying a home, including search, property identification, price negotiation, documentation, home loan facilitation and post sales services.
PropTiger.com has also pioneered multiple technology and data driven innovations in the Indian market such as Property Portfolio, Livability and Safety Scores, Resale Price Estimates and detailed Micro-Market Trends and Analyses. Recently, PropTiger.com launched its Data Labs services for institutions, such as real estate developers, private equity investors and banks, in order to help them make better decisions using the enormous real estate data and customer insights Proptiger.com collects daily.