Housing.com’s Wadhawan On Role Of CFO As A Multiskilled Leader

SUMMARY

Housing.com’s Vikas Wadhawan, the CFO who guided the startup from inception to acquisition by the REA Group, says that digital empowerment allows modern CFOs to work in sync with bigger visions and better frameworks to lift a business

As part of Inc42’s CFOs In Tech Series, powered by HSBC, we spoke to Wadhawan about the strategic role of a CFO and how he led various acquisitions from the front

Wadhawan says it is important for realty tech companies to delve deep into the customer journey and diversify revenue channels to ensure stability and growth

“We are trying to go deeper into the real estate life cycle to provide better experience to our customers. With our vision of providing end to end services to our customers, we are building products to help the customers in their real estate journey. From searching their dream home to drawing up rental agreements and to provide the most suitable mortgage options, we are building product capabilities so that users can transact right on our platform itself.” says Vikas Wadhawan, group CFO of PropTiger, Housing.com and Makaan.“Risk is a multi-dimensional object and it comes in different forms and affects businesses in different ways. So, every single case requires a different solution. My goal as a CFO has always been to find the vulnerabilities and fix them as soon as I can to make the business resilient, even if that requires disrupting the status quo,” concludes Wadhawan.

One of the most thriving sectors worldwide, real estate and construction is the second-highest employment generator in India, next only to agriculture. It currently employs an estimated 67 Mn people, and with a market size of $120 Bn in 2017, the sector is likely to contribute up to 13% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)by 2025.