Online to offline real estate portal Square Yards is back to fund-raising, as it scores close to $12 million in a fresh funding round, led by private equity arm of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.
This deal marks Square Yards’ first institutional investment after the company raised $11 million from a clutch of high net-worth individual investors last year. The money raised by the company will now be used for network expansion in India as well as in abroad.
The startup now plans to expand operations to more than 25 countries on the ground, advising on global real estate, and become the largest mortgage advisory and developer marketing firm in India. It had recently opened up an office in Qatar.
Tanuj Shori, co-founder of Square Yards, said,
Timing of this investment couldn’t have been better for us, with Government’s blow on black money and RERA kicking in soon, Real Estate will get consolidated, organised and institutionalized. Secondary market will be most impacted (prices will drop) but eventually volume surge will help us win even more market share. This is beginning of organised real estate in India.
In a statement, Kanika Gupta Shori, Founder & COO, Square Yards, said,
With this collaboration, the Company will be able to draw on Reliance’s extensive experience, particularly in scaling up the business to a higher growth trajectory and creating significant shareholder value in the process. Besides capital, we will also get access to best practices in running large consumer businesses at scale, with the participation of Reliance.
Founded in 2013 by Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta Shori, Square Yards is a technology-enabled transaction and aggregation platform for global real estate. It claims to be the largest distributor for primary residential real estate in India, and has a leadership position in the NRI markets.
The company has a net revenue run rate of around $1.5 million to $2 million per month and monthly transaction run rate of around 600-800; more than any online or organised offline real estate player in India.
Reliance Capital, the private equity arm of Anil Ambani led Reliance Group, has backed a handful of ventures in the recent past including Paytm, Grover Zampa and Sula Wines.
