Exclusive: Delhi-Based Real Estate Company PropTiger Acquires CBIX At $4.7 Mn

Gurgaon-based real estate firm PropTiger (.com) has acquired Delhi-based premium office space aggregator/platform CBIX (.in) in a deal worth approximately $4.7 Mn. PropTiger has also signed a non-binding and non-disclosure agreement with CBIX, sources told Inc42.

Update: Both PropTiger and CBIX have however refuted the deal. While PropTiger in an email stated “The company has not gone through with any such transaction,” Akshay Madhavan, founder and CEO, CBIX called the development a fake news. 

“CBIX has never spoken to PropTiger for any matter whatsoever,” said Madhavan.

However, two independent and reliable sources earlier confirmed the deal to Inc42. While one source said the deal amount amounted to $4.7 Mn, the second source said, “PropTiger-CBIX deal is $4 Mn in Cash. Proptiger is mainly acquiring the company for its platform and users.”

Reconfirming the development, one source told Inc42 that since both the companies have signed a non-disclosure agreement neither of the two companies would actually disclose or confirm the development.

Established in 2011 by Dhruv Agarwala and Prashan Agrawal, PropTiger is currently a subsidiary of Singapore-based Elara Technologies, which is backed by News Corp. Among other investors are Softbank and REA Group.

Elara Technologies has also acquired other leading real estate platforms such as Housing (.com) and Makaan (.com). Elara had recently secured a credit facility of $35 Mn from Citi Singapore.

With this deal, PropTiger wants to launch its own product servicing vertical and take on real estate giants such as JLL, Cushman and Wakefield (C&W), and CBRE.

Source one also confirmed the news, “With this acquisition, Proptiger will enter project servicing, project financing, and the commercial leasing business.”

CBIX is a startup that was founded by Manoj Sinsinwar, Akshay Madhavan, and Sachin Meshram in September 2016. Its core business was project-servicing, which gained significant traction in the beginning, but later became stagnant. The company later diversified into the commercial leasing business.

After going through the founders’ Linkedin profiles, Inc42 learnt that Manoj Sinsinwar, one of the founders of CBIX, has already joined another company.

The second source informed Inc42, that in Dec 2017, CBIX was about to secure funding from a real estate major, but the company backed out at the last minute. CBIX had hired aggressively since the deal was in the making but it then went kaput, leaving the startup in a cash crunch.

Update 1: August 28, 2018, 20.35

PropTiger Refutes The Deal

In an email response to Inc42, PropTiger has refuted any claims of acquisition of CBIX at $4.7 Mn. “The company has not gone through with any such transaction,” said a company spokesperson.

Update 2: August 28, 2018, 23.15

CBIX Too Refutes The Deal

Akshay Madhavan, founder and CEO, CBIX called the development a fake news. “CBIX has never spoken to PropTiger for any matter whatsoever,” said Madhavan.