REA Group invest US$50 million in Indian property portal

REA Group invest US$50 million in Indian property portal
Staff ReporterDecember 7, 2020

Two of India's online real estate service providers are merging with REA Group investing some US$50 million in the new company.

Once merged, the two portals, PropTiger.com and Housing.com, will become the only player in India offering the full range of online and offline real estate services.

PropTiger is the largest online residential real estate brokerage firm, with Housing.com an online platform for buying and selling homes.

News Corp remains the largest shareholder of PropTiger, and also owns 61.6 percent of REA Group. Representatives of REA and Softbank will join the board of the joint entity, which will continue to be chaired by a News Corp representative.

The board will include Henry Ruiz, chief digital officer, REA Group, Simon Barnett, sales director, News Corp and Jonathan Bullock, managing director, Softbank Group International will join Raju Narisetti (chair), Ravi Adusumalli from SAIF Partners and Prashanth Prakash from Accel Partners as investor directors on the board of the joint entity. 

Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder and CEO of PropTiger, will serve as CEO of the joint entity. Jason Kothari, CEO of Housing.com will move on.

Tracy Fellows, REA Group chief executive officer said India is an important part of their international growth strategy.

"We believe in the potential of the Indian real estate market. REA invests in companies that are leaders in their markets. The joint entity will have access to REA Group’s expertise and know-how from its operations across the globe,” she said.

Robert Thomson, News Corp chief executive said with 1.2 billion people and a rapidly growing economy and middle class, India’s future as a real estate powerhouse is exceptionally bright.

"Clearly there is a compelling commercial purpose to the deal, but we also firmly believe in providing transparency, analysis and insight so that all Indian families, regardless of traditional background or means, will have a better understanding of the property market,” he said.

Jonathan Bullock, managing director, Softbank Group International said PropTiger has already created a great transaction engine.

An affiliate of Softbank Group Corp is investing US$5 million. 

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