Housing.com co-founder Advitiya Sharma survives car accident, booked for causing death due to negligent driving

Advitiya Sharma, co-founder of Mumbai-based Locon Solutions Pvt Ltd, the company behind real estate listing portal Housing.com, met with an accident on Friday while he was driving home from work along with three other colleagues. The mishap caused death of Housing's business engagement and strategy manager Siddharth Bhandari.

The incident occurred after the car lost control when Sharma did not notice a speed breaker and jumped the centre road divider before crashing into parked two-wheelers and later to a roadside tree.

It is learnt that the 25-year old, who also doubles up as the chief marketing officer, escaped unhurt even though media reports said he is among the three seriously injured survivors.

Reports said he has been booked under the Indian Penal Code sections for 279 (rash driving), 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) and 338 (grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), besides Motor Vehicle Act section 184 (driving dangerously). Presently, he is out on bail.

We tried contacting him for more information on whether he has joined back for work or is likely to hand over his role for the time being to another colleague, but could not get any fresh updates on the development.

Housing was set up in 2012 by a dozen IITians out of which three have quit the firm. The portal enables real estate brokers to upload unlimited listings on the site while users can search properties for free.

It has raised over $121 million till date. Recently it had secured $90 million in fresh funding, led by Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank Corp., with participation from New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital, among others.

Prior to that, Housing had raised $19 million in funding from Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures. Earlier, it had attracted a pre-series A round of funding and two rounds of angel funding.

The firm is in talks to acquire real estate analytics firm PropEquity.