PropTiger raises Rs. 25 crores, SAIF and Accel lead second round of funding

New Delhi, April 19, 2012: SAIF Partners and Accel Partners today announced their investment in PropTiger Realty Private Limited which runs PropTiger.com, India's leading technology-enabled real estate marketing services platform. PropTiger was created in February 2011 by Dhruv Agarwala, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal and since inception has achieved a gross value of property sold amounting to Rs. 1,100 crores Dhruv and Kartik are classmates from Harvard Business School who previously had successfully built iTrust Financial Advisors, a mass-market wealth management business that they subsequently sold to the Karvy Group. Prashan is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and ISB, Hyderabad who prior to PropTiger had successfully built internet and technology businesses. PropTiger currently focuses on marketing new residential real estate developments aimed at middle class Indian families and is transacting at a run-rate of 300 units a month. The company's website, PropTiger.com, is today India's most visited website for Indian families conducting research related to purchasing a new apartment. Potential customers leave their required property specifications online. Thereafter, PropTiger's real estate experts, all of whom are company employees, initiate contact with these customers and offer end-to-end services starting from identifying apartment options, organizing site visits, budget and affordability analysis, helping with unit selection and filing of the application with the real estate developer to facilitating the cheapest housing loan. PropTiger offers real estate developers across India the ability to quickly sell their new residential apartments inventory during the initial launch, thus allowing developers to focus on the execution of their project. For many developers, PropTiger is today the largest marketing partner with a demonstrated ability to sell up to 50% of a new residential development's total units within a few weeks of its launch. The company's target is to reach Rs 10,000 crores of gross value of property sold by 2016. The new funding will be used to further strengthen PropTiger's position in India's top 8 cities where it operates and increasing head count to 500 real estate experts by mid-2013. Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF and Prashanth Prakash of Accel have joined PropTiger's Board. Commenting on the transaction, Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF said, “India is in the early stages of a long cycle in residential ownership driven by rising income levels, nuclearization of families and a 20 million shortage in housing units. We are excited to partner with PropTiger in their mission to help middle class Indian families achieve their home ownership goals”. “The real estate industry is ripe for using technology to make the home buying process a more efficient one for buyers and sellers. We look forward to helping PropTiger innovate to provide the best services to both end-buyers and real estate developers”, said Prashanth Prakash of Accel. Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder PropTiger said, “Our ambition is to make PropTiger synonymous with the real estate category and make it the first port of call for Indian families when they think of residential real estate. We are delighted that SAIF and Accel share our vision to address this huge opportunity in India”. “Indian home buyers need an honest, reliable and transparent partner during what is an emotionally charged purchase experience. By developing a branded offering using technology-enabled processes and better trained staff, we hope to make the home buying experience as painless as can be” said Kartik Varma, co-founder PropTiger. Prashan Agarwal co-founder PropTiger added, “Real estate developers are pleasantly surprised at our ability to create and aggregate demand for their new launches, thus allowing them to focus on their core activity of building and executing new projects. We look forward to becoming the preferred channel partner for builders across India who can benefit from our marketing expertise.”