Black Opal Group Bags $3 Mn To Fuel Expansion Of Its Prop Fintech Venture

Asset Management company Black Opal Group has secured growth capital of $3 Mn (around INR 25 Cr) from SBI and HDFC Bank.

The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand its services and the team of JustHomz, a prop fintech B2B2C platform it had set up last year.

Founded by Prasoon Chauhan and Ishan Agarwal in 2020, Black Opal Group is a platform focussed on real estate sector. It operates through its asset management vertical, an RBI-registered NBFC, JustHomz.com. The platform focuses on improving the home buying experience by prioritising customer privacy, providing a user-friendly map interface, easy access to property documents, and introducing a scoring algorithm called Just Scorz. 

The app evaluates properties on technical parameters, offering a comprehensive project assessment. The platform also integrates financing products such as home equity, renovation financing, and early brokerage.

The JustHomz app has registered over 5,000 customers, 250 verified channel partners, and 240 verified projects. It is currently operational in the NCR region.

The company aims to onboard more than 100,000 customers and achieve $3-5 Mn in loan disbursements through the app in the next 3-6 months.

“We deeply felt the need for a solid integrated ecosystem—a one-stop platform for every Indian aspiring to buy a dream home,” Chauhan said.

Black Opal Group claims to have made over $4.5 Mn in revenue and earned $1.75 Mn in profit after taxes so far. It has facilitated transactions surpassing $200 Mn in real estate projects, providing benefits to 1,500 home buyers and distributing $6 Mn from the NBFC.

The Indian proptech space has been gaining a lot of traction for quite some time now. 

In June last year, proptech startup, Crib, raised about $1.8 Mn in a Seed round co-led by We Founder Circle and Rebright Partners.

In May, Property Pistol raised INR 45 Cr in a Series A funding round led by ICICI Bank and Baring Private Equity Partners India. It said it will also deploy the funds to continue investing in innovative and tech-oriented solutions. Close on the heels, proptech startup Zapkey Technologies bagged an undisclosed amount of funding led by the DSP Group Office with participation from existing investors Gruhas Proptech and DLF Family Office. 

With increasing internet penetration and access to smartphones, the Indian startup ecosystem has seen the rise of a number of fintech startups over the last few years.

Multiple lendingtech startups have recently acquired fresh funding. Fintech startup Fixerra raised INR 14 Cr ($1.68 Mn) in seed funding from angel investors and family offices. Hyderabad-based NBFC Vivifi India Finance secured $75 Mn (around INR 623.19 Cr) in a Series B funding round from a US-based investor through a mix of debt and equity infusion. InPrime Finserv recently raised Series A funding of $3 Mn and also aims to utilise the fresh capital for geographical expansion. Jaipur based NBFC Namdev Finvest, which offers financial solutions in rural India, also raised $15 Mn on January 22. 

According to Inc42’s State Of Indian Fintech Report, the lendingtech market occupies 60% of the fintech market in India and is expected to reach $1.3 Tn by 2030 exhibiting a 22% CAGR. 

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