Excl: Real estate portal PropTiger in talks to raise $20M afresh

Real estate portal PropTiger.com is in talks with existing as well as new investors to raise $20 million (Rs 120 crore) by the year end, a top company executive told Techcircle.in.

"We plan to raise the money in three-four months," Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder, PropTiger.com, said.

While Agarwala did not specify the names of the new investors, when asked if the existing investors would be a part of this fund raising he said, "I am very sure they would participate; they are very excited about the company."

So far the company has raised $7 million in total. The first funding was to the tune of $2 million in 2011 when SoftBank, Horizen Ventures and a few angels invested in the firm. SoftBank had invested through SoftBank China & India Holdings, which manages Bodhi Investments LLC, and focuses on early stage and selected pre-IPO opportunities in China, India and Southeast Asia.

The second round of funding happened in 2012 when the company raised another $5 million from SAIF Partners and Accel Partners.

PropTiger which has presence in eight cities—Noida, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata—plans to expand to eight more cities in a year.

It is looking at Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Kochi and Hyderabad as few of the potential markets.

"The proceeds of the funding will be used in this expansion. We will also be hiring 300 more employees largely for our sales teams in these cities," said Agarwala.

The company, which works as a real estate advisory service provider, has sold properties worth over Rs 7,600 crore to date.

It also plans to have its own team to click pictures from the sites which will be posted on the website. Currently the pictures are provided by the developers.

Agarwala said that the company will look at acquiring some startups which would have innovative ideas around visualisation software or strategic 3D design.

PropTiger is one among a new generation of real estate portals that include Commonfloor and Housing.com. Commonfloor, which counts Accel as a common investor with PropTiger, has raised around $18 million to date. Housing.com, raised close to $19 million from Helion Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners, early this year.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)