Elara Technologies, the group that operates and owns Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com, has raised a big chunk of funding. The Singapore based service company has received $35 million from Citi Singapore, a first for the Indian technology start-up sector.
“India’s real estate sector is growing at a healthy pace on the back of strong overall market demand,” Wong Sin Ping, Global Subsidiaries Group Head of Citi Singapore, said, ET Realty reported. “This transaction demonstrates our confidence in Elara Technologies’ growth potential and the opportunity that we see in India’s digital real estate market over the next few years.”
This is the first debt financing for the company which has so far raised $105 million in equity financing. Elara reportedly plans to use the capital raised for business growth by investing in brand building, product & technology, sales force and geographic expansion.
The 2013 group is also looking to add 150 members to its sales and technology workforce taking the entire count to 1,500.
At present, the company is growing at a rate of more than 50% Y-O-Y. Housing.com, which Elara technologies acquired in 2017, has maintained its strong growth trajectory in the current fiscal with 77% growth in collections in Q1 FY2018-19.
Additionally, PropTiger.com achieved significant organic traffic growth of 93% during the first half of the calendar year 2018 due to which its revenue grew by 40% during H1 2018, as compared to H1 2017. Similarly, Makaan.com also witnessed a 300% growth in revenue in H1 2018 over the same period last year.
Elara has reportedly claimed that it plans to introduce a range of new products this year to further strengthen its customer offerings. Presently, 99acres.com and Magicbricks.com in real estate classified business are its main competitors, among few others.