Grabhouse Grabs $10 Mn In Series B From Sequoia & Kalaari

Accommodation listing startup Grabhouse that shifted its base to Bangalore, has raised $10 Mn (INR 65 Cr.) in Series B round of funding from its existing investors, Sequoia and Kalaari Capital.

The newly raised capital will utilise to strengthen its presence in existing cities, build technology capability and launch new verticals.

Grabhouse plans to launch a new line of offering in the PG and Apartment category, also increasing the headcount and investing in relevant spaces.

Pankhuri Shrivastava, CMO & co-founder of Grabhouse said, “Business is about bringing the right owner and seeker together, there is a science behind house hunting or renting. Our key differentiator has been and will always be our technology-lead approach targeted towards making this online experience hassle-free. The newer version will be a virtual assistant, which Grabhouse claims should be working at par with Siri or Google Now. We are confident that this infusion will help us realise our goals faster and increase our presence.”

The company has witnessed an earning of above $76,000 (INR 50 lakhs) from consulting services like neighbourhood specialists and lead generation, in past one month.

Incepted in 2013 by Prateek Shukla and Pankhuri Shrivastava, Grabhouse.com is a community-based online exchange for finding rented accommodation which offers a broker-free and transparent experience to house hunters seeking rented or shared accommodation.

Quick Facts:

• Broker-free online real estate platform
• Present in 11 cities
• Receives over 4.5 Mn page views every month
• Witnesses over 200 transactions per day
• Combined month-on-month growth is around 115%
• Includes 22 neighbourhood specialists now

Kalaari Capital’s Vani Kola said, “We are very excited to partner with Grabhouse. Renting space in India is in need of some revolutionary thinking & measures to make house hunting a joyous experience, across the board. Grabhouse through a combination of technology & smart analytics is addressing that need. Hence, together we should grow from strength to strength.”

Prior to this, the startup had raised $2.5 Mn in Series A round from Kalaari Capital and India Quotient, in January this year.

Pankhuri added that when the last funding was raised, it was more focused on great team and technology wherein marketing contributed a small part.

Grabhouse competes with Commonfloor in the same domain, which is expected to be in final round of being bought by online classified portal Quikr. The other players include NoBroker and Housing.com. However, the USP of the company lies in the fact that Grabhouse is focused towards the fulfilment and successful closure.

The real estate space is getting cluttered with more and more startups entering the domain with disruptive idea, like Eezyrent, Flatchat, Zocalo and Nestaway. Recently, Zocalo.in, raised funding from a clutch of prominent investors. Also, Nestaway, had raised $12 Mn (around INR 76 Cr) from Flipkart and Tiger Global.

According to a financial daily, private equity funding in real estate is expected to be double this financial year to increase by $10 Bn as compared to a year ago.

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