Excl: Bharatmatrimony owner sells majority stake in Clickjobs.com

Matrimony.com Pvt Ltd (Formerly Consim Info Pvt Ltd), which owns a string of consumer Internet properties including real estate website Indiaproperty.com and Bharatmatrimony.com, has sold a majority stake in its job portal business to Delhi-based realtor Sanjeet Kumar Singh. The job portal business, housed under Perspi Interactive Pvt Ltd, essentially comprised its portal Clickjobs.com.

For more details on the transaction click here.

"We sold the jobs portal as we wanted to concentrate on the core businesses like matrimony and properties. We are not looking at further diversification at present," Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and CEO, Matrimony.com, told Techcircle.in. He did not comment on the transaction size.

"ClickJobs was taken over in July and we are currently focusing on the product," Singh, a first generation realty entrepreneur who was swayed by the rapid growth of the online recruitment market in the country, told Techcircle.in.

"ClickJobs offer products so unique to the customer (and) has the advantage as a differentiator in the market among the competition. We are working on alliances and tie ups, which will soon help us in expanding our reach," Singh said.

Last year, Internet company Yahoo! had exited Matrimony.com by selling its 12 per cent stake to Bessemer Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and Canaan Partners for Rs 100 crore in a deal that valued Matrimony.com at Rs 900 crore.

Matrimony.com (Consim Info) raised $8.65 million in its first round of funding in 2006 from Yahoo and Canaan Partners. It was followed by a second round of funding worth $11.75 million from Yahoo, Mayfield Fund and Canaan Partners.

After the second round of capital infusion, Matrimony.com explored several niche portals in its matrimonial business, including religion-based websites (Muslimmatrimony.com and Christianmatrimony.com) and an online service for rich individuals looking for a life partner (Elitematrimony.com).

A few years ago, the company was mulling an IPO, which could have also provided an exit opportunity for its existing investors. The plan did not materialise.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)