Asuka Holdings, existing investors back real estate firm Property Share

Bangalore-based Property Share, which offers investors fractional ownership of properties, has raised an undisclosed amount in a fresh round of investment led by Japanese venture capital investor Asuka Holdings, Kunal Moktan, founder and chief executive of the startup told VCCircle.

Existing investors Pravega Ventures and Beenext also participated in this round.

Owned and operated by Property Share Online Platform Pvt. Ltd., the startup will spend the capital to strengthen its technology infrastructure and to expand its team.

The real estate firm had previously raised $530,000 from early-stage venture capital companies Beenext and Pravega Ventures Trust in October 2016, data on VCCEdge, the research platform of News Corp VCCircle shows.

Property Share was founded by Moktan and Hashim Khan (chief technology officer), both graduates of IIM Ahmedabad, in 2015. Moktan worked with Blackstone Real Estate Partners, while Khan worked at M.H. Alshaya, a multinational retail franchise operator before launching the startup.

Property Share is a real estate investment platform that allows investors to purchase, lend or borrow against fractional shares in completed rent-generating residential and commercial properties. The platform facilitates co-ownership, manages the property on behalf of investors (including tenancy) and sells the property after three to four years. It also allows investors to transfer their shares, in the interim, at current property prices through its proprietary secondary sale platform. The minimum investment ticket size is Rs 10 lakh.

According to The Economic Times, which first reported the development, the company is aiming at managing properties worth Rs 250 crore by the end of 2017. Currently, it has about 15 properties and $4 million in assets under management, the report added.

Asuka Holdings had earlier invested in WorkIndia, a job portal for blue-collar workers and Daily Rounds, an app that compiles case studies and quizzes for doctors.

Pravega Ventures was founded in 2016 by Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain, who were both formerly with Saif Partners. The fund provides seed and pre-Series A stage capital to startups. The VC fund previously invested $15.6 million in a Series A round in Silicon Valley-based big data startup Innovaccer Inc. and recently made an investment in expense management company Fyle Technologies.

Singapore-based early-stage technology fund Beenext targets investments in early-stage companies in India, Southeast Asia, Japan and the US. It was established by Sato, founder and former chief executive of Japanese e-commerce operator and investor Beenos Inc (formerly Netprice).