Online real estate classified portal IndiaProperty, which was spun off from Consim Info earlier this year, has bagged $12 million in a second round of funding.
Though the ‘Series B’ round was led by Bertelsmann, it also saw participation from existing investors Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund.
India Property was started by Chennai-based entrepreneur Murugavel Janakiraman, who has also founded Matrimony.com. IndiaProperty was formerly a part of Consim Info, which owned Matrimony.com, but was demerged officially earlier this year and raised fresh capital of $7 million from Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund.
According to CEO Ganesh Vasudevan, the $7 million raised earlier this year was used to pay off working capital the company had borrowed.
“While we demerged in April, 2012, it took almost a year for it to be approved by the courts. In those 12 months, we had to use interim funding. So our Series A was used to pay off the working capital we borrowed in the interim period,” Mr. Vasudevan told The Hindu .
“The new money will now go into three initiatives. We will use it to scale up our technology infrastructure, build our brand and marketing and then expand our geography footprint.
Revenue has grown more than three and a half times in the last two years, the demerger has given us increased focus,” he added.
As part of the deal, Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director of Bertelsmann India Investments, will join the IndiaProperty board.
The online real estate industry in India has gained steam over the last few months, with real estate search portal CommonFloor raising $7.5 million from Tiger Global andHousing.co.in securing $2.5 million in funding from Nexus Venture Partners.
