For expanding its services, Singapore-based real estate portal PropertyGuru has secured an investment of SGD200 million from private equity firm KKR and Co.
The company will utilise the fund to take full ownership of Vietnamese property portal Batdongsan.com.vn, in which it already owns a stake since 2016.
Interestingly, the number of people visiting Batdongsan has doubled to four million a month since that investment.
Hari Krishnan, chief executive officer of PropertyGuru, said, “The capital we raised is in excess of what we need to take that stake, the rest we are keeping essentially as a bit of a war chest for other inorganic growth opportunities.”
He also said the firm was looking at providing more mortgage-related services and customised products to users.
Speaking about the new investment, Krishnan added, “This new investment is a great validation of the technology-driven growth that PropertyGuru has delivered. Backed by a decade of market leadership in Southeast Asia and delivering a record year for business performance – today the group is profitable, cash flow positive and has revenues growing more than 25 per cent year-on-year.”
PropertyGuru is the largest real estate portal which helps users with property-related decisions, search listings online and photos of homes.
During the last funding round in 2015, PropertyGuru raised SGD175 million from US private equity firm TPG, Indonesian media company Emtek and venture capital firm Square Peg Capital.
Private equity firm KKR has recently backed other technology firms in Southeast Asia, including Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek and the Philippines' Voyager Innovations, a digital payments firm.
Ashish Shastry, Member & Head of Southeast Asia at KKR, said, “With rapid online migration well underway across many industries, the PropertyGuru team, led by Hari V. Krishnan, has clearly established itself as the Southeast Asian champion in the online property space. We look forward to partnering with them to help take them to the next level.”
PropertyGuru has recently unveiled a successful brand refresh with revamped websites and mobile apps that are powered by Artificial Intelligence – an industry first in Southeast Asia.
The real estate portal operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam with 25 million property seekers visiting monthly.
