Update: Post publishing this story, we got following response from Housing – “This is completely untrue and inaccurate. We are in NO Talks with anybody for any sale”
Before
Snapdeal is reportedly looking to acquire the real estate platform Housing.com. According to people close to the development, the discussion is in the nascent stage and would be formalised in the next 2-4 months. The deal will value Housing at approximately $650 Mn – $700 Mn.
SoftBank and Nexus Venture Partners are common investors for Snapdeal and Housing.com, and according to reports, they might fund this deal.
Last year, Housing has managed to be in news every month that initially started with the Rahul Yadav Saga and later, back to back mass firings. The company has already fired about over 900 employees in a series of layoffs in last few months to meet the cost reduction targets set by its investors.
The company had also acquired a number of startups last year that includes online discussion forum for sharing real estate information, “Indian Real Estate Forum” (IREF) for about INR 8 Cr., later on went on to acquire Realty Business Intelligence for about $1.5 Mn (INR 10 Cr.) and then acquired HomeBuy360, a unique cloud based Sales Lifecycle Management Platform that connects developers, agents and buyers for $2 Mn towards. Besides, the company had also acqui-hired Plat, an online network for agents enabling them to share real estate inventories and requirements and BigBHK, a property management software (PMS) targeted at rental suppliers in late 2015.
Last month, Housing also announced that it would close all business units including rental and commercial listings and focus on its home-buying and selling business.
As per the sources, the only thing that can stablize Housing.com is either getting acquired or look for a strategic funding. On the other hand, if Snapdeal acquires the real estate company, then it could increase its revenue by $10 Mn – $15 Mn in the real estate vertical.
Founded in 2012, the valuation of Housing.com stood at INR 1,500 Cr. ($250 Mn) during its last round of funding which saw an investment of $90 Mn from SoftBank in November 2014.
Helion Ventures, Nexus Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures are the other investors in the online real estate service provider. So far, the startup has raised about $130 Mn in four rounds of funding. Also, a regulatory filing by Locon Solutions Pvt Limited (Housing.com’s parent company) states that the company had also received bridge funding of about $7 Mn (INR 50 Cr.) from SoftBank.
The recent announcement of Snapdeal about its week-long real estate shopping festival called ‘Freedom from Rent’ offering properties in a price range of INR 20 lakh to INR 5 Cr, highlights the fact that the Delhi-based ecommerce marketplace is trying to gain a strong foothold in the real estate category. Quikr acquiring Commonfloor to merge with QuikrHomes points out that – for Snapdeal, to scale and grow in the real estate category, acquiring Housing.com makes a perfect deal.
Also, a recent report by TOI mentions that Housing is in talks with News Corp, which is a backer of rival PropTiger for a strategic stake sale.
