Flush with funds, Murdoch-backed PropTiger now buys out Makaan.com

Real estate portal PropTiger today said it has acquired rival Makaan.com for an undisclosed amount as the Rupert Murdoch-backed website aims to ramp up its presence in India’s secondary property market. PropTiger’s parent firm, Elara Technologies said it has entered into a transaction with Makaan.com Pvt Ltd, owner of the site. Both the portals will run separately. “Our parent firm Elara has acquired Makaan.com, which will keep operating as a separate portal. No fresh funds were raised for this acquisition,” said PropTiger.com co-founder Dhruv Agarwala. Agarwala did not disclose the acquisition amount. [caption id=“attachment_1119153” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Last November, Rupert Murdoch-led News Corp had acquired 25 percent stake in PropTiger for $30 million (Rs 185 crore) as part of its strategy to expand presence in digital media. Elara’s other investors include SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizon Ventures. Earlier this month, PropTiger had acquired Bangalore-based Out of Box Interaction (OoBI), a digital interaction design company that specialises in displaying real estate projects in an immersive way. Asked about the reason for acquiring Makaan.com, Agarwala said: “It has a strong presence in the property resale market, while PropTiger is strong in the primary market.” The acquisition creates a comprehensive online real-estate platform, which will offer end-to-end services to home buyers, real estate developers, property brokers, banks and private equity investors, he added. Since 2011, around 12,000 homes worth $1.2 billion have been purchased through PropTiger’s platform. The Noida-based firm, which was founded in February 2011, has eight offices in the country with employee strength of around 500. PropTiger also provides real estate consulting and data services to real estate developers, private equity investors and banks. Its proprietary database contains information and transaction data on residential real estate sector in 20 major Indian cities. Makaan.com, on the other hand, has around 200,000 active property listings and relationships with 40,000 brokers in 50 Indian cities. Makaan.com was founded within People Group by entrepreneur and investor Anupam Mittal, whose other digital ventures include Shaadi.com and Mauj Mobile. PTI