Focused on expanding its business, IndiaHomes has raised Rs 150 crore from a group of investors led by USA-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Using next generation technology, IndiaHomes also plans to increase its product portfolio and become all services provider for the real estate customers.
While discussing with the The Pioneer how the company plans to utilise the fund, Samarjit Singh, Founder and Managing Director, IndiaHomes said, “This investment will fuel our growth as we expand our presence from 10 to 50 cities in the next five months. We will also make a foray into the secondary market and envisage 60:40ration between primary and secondary market in the near future.”Apart from entering new markets, IndiaHomes has also drafted an aggressive business strategy for the coming days. “Our financial goal is to reach $5 billion sales of gross merchandise value (GMV) in the coming 1,000 days from the current GMV of $1 billion,” Samarjit Singh added.
When asked how the company plans to achieve this aim, he replied, “Till now we were on present in primary markets of top 10 cities but with our foot print now expanding and our basket of services increasing, we would easily achieve this goal.” He further added that its offices in all the 5o cities including tier II and tier III cities will be operational in the coming 100 days only.
IndiaHomes also announced the addition of more services in its product basket. Focused to provide all the necessary real estate services to customers under one roof, the company would now provide services of buying, selling, renting, property loans and even furnishing. In order to successfully provide all the services, the company plans to invest heavily towards improving technology in the next 3- 6 months.
While all these services are free to customers, IndiaHomes revenue is primarily driven by fee which brokers pay to get leads of potential customers. Currently, the company has nearly 30,000 brokers empanelled till now around the country with almost 35,000 secondary market listings underway.
Bala Deshpande, Senior Managing Director of NEA who led the investment and has now joined the board of IndiaHomes. When asked how much investment was made by each investor, Singh said, “Almost half of the round was led by NEA while the rest came from Helion Ventures and Foundation Capital.” Commenting on further fund raising, Singh said, “We are currently well capitalised but if the need comes, we might consider raising funds in the next two year.”