Housing.com raises another $90 m from SoftBank, Falcon Edge

Mumbai, Dec 22, 2014 – Housing.com has raised $90 million (about Rs. 567 crore) from a group of investors, including Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank Corp, making it the fifth round of funding for the real estate portal.

The Mumbai-based company has raised a total of $121 million in the last two years.

The funding was provided by a SoftBank Group company SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI), with participation from New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital and existing investors, Housing.com said in a statement.

Funding expansion

The start-up will use the funds for its expansion plans, including mapping over 40 million houses across 300 cities in India.

Part of the funding will also be used to set up build technology, including ‘on-off’ buttons for home owners, Advitiya Sharma, one of the co-founders of Housing.com said.

New feature

“These buttons will enable property owners to switch it (a listing) off, when a house has been sold or rented. Further, they can switch it back on like when a tenant (in case of rentals) has moved out,” Sharma told BusinessLine .

Krishnamurthy and Co was the legal advisor to Housing.com, while Avendus Capital was the financial advisor.

Morrison & Foerster and AZB & Partners were the legal advisors and Raine Group was the financial advisor to SoftBank.

“This signifies that the online house buying and renting space is gathering momentum. There is a great interest, and the transactions being of high value, the Gross merchandise volume for online companies is much higher,” said Harish HV, Partner at Grant Thornton India.

Rapid rise

Housing.com was started by a group of 12 students from IIT-Bombay in June 2012, from a two-bedroom apartment in Mumbai.

Later, in 2013, the start-up raised its first investment of Rs. 50 lakh from a team of angel investors led by Zishaan Hayath, co-founder of Chaupaati Bazaar.

It then raised Rs. 1.5 crore from former Network18 Chief Executive Officer Harish Chawla, and later $2.5 million from Nexus Venture Partners. In June, Housing.com raised Rs. 115 crore from VC firms such as Helion Venture Partners ( Rs. 48 crore), Nexus Venture Partners ( Rs. 43 crore) and Qualcomm Ventures ( Rs. 24 crore). Business Line