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News Corp, a global media and information services company, has announced that it raised its stake in Elara Technologies, the parent company of Bangalore-based PropTiger, a digital real estate marketing and transactions services provider to 30%/.
News Corp had acquired 25% stake in PropTiger in November 2014 for an valuation of $30 Mn. Since then PropTiger has acquired two startups which include digital design startup Out of Box Interaction (OoBI) and property search portal Makaan.com.
Other major shareholders in Elara, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners, which had increased their shareholdings as part of the original News Corp investment will remain key backers of PropTiger.
Commenting on the development, Dhruv Agarwala, Co-founder, PropTiger.com said, “News Corp’s increased stake is a validation of PropTiger’s strategy to win a growing share of the digital real estate market in India through our unique service offerings and an end user experience that is second to none. We continue to leverage and benefit from News Corp’s global expertise in real estate markets.”
PropTiger.com was founded by Dhruv Agarwala, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal in 2011. Company leverages the power of technology and data to make the home buying experience rewarding and easy-to-use. It guides customers through the entire process of buying a home, including search, property identification, price negotiation, documentation, home loan facilitation and post sales services. It offers product such as Property Portfolio, Livability and Safety Scores, Resale Price Estimates and detailed Micro-Market Trends and Analyses.
New York-based News Corp was founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1979. It is a global, diversified media and information services company. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, book publishing, cable network programming in Australia, digital real estate services, digital education, and pay-TV distribution in Australia.
News Corp owns a 62% stake in REA Group, which is the operator of Australia’s leading property website, realestate.com.au. It also owns Move Inc., which operates realtor.com®, the most up-to-date and accurate for-sale listings of any digital real estate company in the US. It also recently incubated MansionGlobal.com, a global luxury real estate website housed at Dow Jones & Company.
Recently in March 2015, News Corp acquired the VCCircle Network. Also, it acquired FinDirect Services Pvt Ltd, the company behind financial planning startup BigDecisions.com in December,2014.
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