Singaporean online property portal PropertyGuru Group announced that it has received a S$175 million ($131 million) investment from a strategic consortium of three investors.
This investment will support PropertyGuru’s innovation, marketing and further expansion in the region with the aim of increasing its position, the company said in a statement.
The investing consortium comprises global private investment firm TPG, Indonesia’s largest media group Emtek Group, and Asia Pacific-based tech venture capital firm Square Peg Capital.
Following the close of transaction representatives from the consortium will join PropertyGuru’s board.
PropertyGuru, which claims to be the leading property portal in Southeast Asia, has built market leadership across Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, garnering over 11 million monthly consumer visits, 104 million page views and a 28 percent traffic growth per annum, with mobile making up 52 percent of total traffic.
The value of real estate transactions through the PropertyGuru platform is estimated to be S$14 billion per annum; an approximate 10 percent of all property transactions in the region.
“We will capitalise on this investment to tap into the Southeast Asia property market potential and developments in the digital space to further our regional agenda,” said Steve Melhuish, CEO and co-founder of PropertyGuru.
Ganen Sarvananthan, TPG Partner and Managing Director, said, “It represents a great addition to TPG's Asia portfolio as well as strengthens our global internet investment reach. We look forward to lending our industry expertise to pursue growth, in partnership with the PropertyGuru team, Emtek Group and Square Peg.”
TPG already owns complementary internet and real estate companies in its portfolio, including Uber, Airbnb, Lynda.com, SurveyMonkey, RentPath and 8990 (Philippines), among others.
Paul Bassat, partner and co-founder of Square Peg, said, “Square Peg sees tremendous potential for PropertyGuru to continue to innovate and expand on its market leading positions in multiple geographies.”
Emtek Group is already PropertyGuru’s partner in Indonesia and will now further strengthen its relationship through this latest round of investment.
Emtek Group’s Commissioner, Jay Wacher said, “This investment in PropertyGuru presents a prime opportunity for us to deepen our exposure to the online classified’s business. Our investment is aimed at fast-tracking PropertyGuru’s plans to innovate ahead of market needs and extend its leadership in the property space.”
PropertyGuru said that Scout24, previously a minority shareholder, will exit the business to focus on their core wholly-owned property and car online classified businesses in Europe.
