PropTiger and Housing.com merge at an undisclosed valuation; raise $55 million from REA, Softbank

At an undisclosed valuation, Real estate portal PropTiger and Housing.com have merged in an all stock deal.

The company, in a statement, confirmed that global online real estate advertising company REA Group will invest $50 million in the joint entity while Softbank will put in $5 million.

PropTiger CEO Dhruv Agarwala will be leading the company and both the companies will be working and running separately.

"India is an important part of our international growth strategy. The joint entity will have access to REA Group's expertise and know-how from its operations across the globe,” said REA Group CEO Tracy Fellows.

This deal comes in roughly a year after Tiger Global backed Commonfloor got acquired by online classifieds firm Quikr.

Reportedly, in the tie up, new projects showcased on the Housing.com platform online, will leverage PropTiger's offline services including site-visit arrangement, price negotiations, paperwork assistance, home-loan offers to complete the deal. While PropTiger will provide an upfront marketing fee to promote New Projects on Housing.com, it will also share a part of the transaction fee on successful sale of a property.

After the ouster of Housing's founder Rahul Yadav, most of the company cofounders quit the startup. However at the same time, under the leadership of Kothari the company has revamped its top management and appointed more experienced talent on its board including former Google and Amazon top executive Vivek Jain as its chief product and technology officer and Keerthi Kiran as the head of new real estate projects.

PropTiger on the other hand says it distinguishes itself in the market by offering customers an end-to-end service from house discovery to final purchase, including arranging site visits, assisting with home loans and property registrations.

The company's other investors include SAIF Partners and Accel Partners. News Corp acquired 25% stake in Elara in November 2014 for $30 million and increased its stake to about 30% in June 2015.