Online rental brokerage platform FastFox has secured $4.6 Mn (about INR 30 Cr) in its Series A round of funding from Lightspeed India Partners, Blume Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, GrowX Ventures, and IMJ Investment Partners.
The startup plans to use the funding to enhance technology, delivery model, and team expansion across engineering, sales, and operations.
Commenting on the investment, Dev Khare, Partner at Lightspeed India Partners Advisors said, “Pallav (Pandey) and his team have shown us that there is a large market in rentals that suffers from India-specific problems such as information scarcity, information asymmetry, trust deficits and small local networks, all of which can be solved through the power of the Internet and a tech-enabled approach like Fastfox.com.”
The startup was launched in November 2014 by Pallav Pandey and Mukul Bhati. FastFox is an O2O rental brokerage company based out of Gurugram. As per an official blogpost, it has more than 2,500 home listings available for renting immediately.
The listings on the website have verified photographs of the house, and the surrounding locality. Additionally, details about landlord preference, pets etc. are also given on the website. The company charges customers a commission after a successful deal.
Pallav Pandey, co-founder and CEO, FastFox said, “In India, 27% of urban families (approximately 20 Mn) live and spend a whopping $32 Bn on rent. Yet, popular websites are full of fake listings and they leave the home seeker to be serviced by local brokers. In contrast, FastFox handholds the customer on the entire journey from online discovery of options to field visits to negotiation with landlord and subsequent paper-work.”
It currently boasts a team of 160+. FastFox also owns BroEx, an information exchange platform for real estate brokers that leverages a network of brokers to procure updated information on rental homes.
As per an IBEF report, the Indian real estate market is expected to touch $180 Bn by 2020. The housing sector alone contributes 5%-6% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In January 2017, real estate developer Lodha Developers Pvt. Ltd launched its maiden investment fund for startups focussed on smart city solutions and the overall real estate sector. With an initial investment corpus of about $7.3 Mn (INR 50 Cr), the company will provide angel funding or venture capital, business opportunities, industry contacts and mentorship. In March 2017, Bengaluru-based Property Share raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Japanese asset management firm Asuka, existing investors Pravega Ventures and Singapore-based BEENEXT.
Other startups in the real estate space include QuikrHomes, Housing.com, MagicBricks, Nobroker, etc.
