PropertyGuru, a Singapore-based online real estate portal backed by media conglomerate Emtek, received S$200m ($145m) today in a series D round led by private equity firm KKR’s Asian Fund III.
Founded in 2007, PropertyGuru operates an online real estate agency that covers Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and, from today, Vietnam. The portals collectively list more than 2 million properties for sale and rent and attract 25 million monthly visitors between them.
PropertyGuru has now expanded into Vietnam through an acquisition of local real estate platform Batdongsan, having first made an investment in the company in 2016. Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
The series D funding will enable PropertyGuru to further improve its offering, following an updating of its websites and mobile apps, which exploit artificial intelligence, earlier this year. An unnamed representative of KKR will join its board of directors.
PropertyGuru raised $130m in series C funding from Emtek, private equity group TPG and venture capital firm Square Peg Capital in a 2015 deal that enabled Scout24, an e-commerce subsidiary of telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom, to exit.
Scout24 had provided $48m in series B funding for the company in 2012. It had raised $850,000 in series A capital from Tigris Capital, Finn Evdemon Capital Partners, Upstream Ventures and private investor Steven Diggle in 2008.
Hari Krishnan, chief executive of PropertyGuru, said: “This new investment is a great validation of the technology-driven growth that PropertyGuru has delivered.
“Backed by a decade of market leadership in Southeast Asia and delivering a record year for business performance – today the group is profitable, cash flow positive and has revenues growing more than 25% year on year.
“We are pleased to have KKR, a blue chip tech investor, join our board, as we have ambitious plans for innovation and growth in the decade ahead.”
