Real Estate Portal Square Yards Raises $10 Mn Funding In Part Debt Part Equity Deal

Just two months after raising $12 Mn round from Anil Ambani’s Reliance group, Gurugram-based real estate portal Square Yards has received another $10 Mn into its banks. The funding is led by a group of high net worth individuals including global beauty brand L’Occitane CEO Andre Hoffman and the family office of Kanpur-based Lohia Group.

As per reports, the funding is done in a part debt-part equity round, with over 70% of financing in form of convertible notes. With this, the total amount raised by the firm, to date, has reached $33 Mn.

“The challenge for Square Yards is the manpower-intensive nature of real estate brokerage. But I am very impressed by their approach to residential realty brokerage, ” said Amit Lohia, Director at Lohia Group.

Founded in 2013 by Tanuj Shori, Square Yards is a tech-enabled transaction and aggregation platform for global real estate. The company claims to have generated exceptional growth in all key business metrics and currently has a net revenue run rate of $1.5Mn – $2 Mn per month (annualised ~ $25Mn) and transaction rate of ~$600-$800/month.

Square Yards is looking to accelerate its international expansion as well as build a working capital war chest with the raised funds in 2017. “The idea is to have working capital for a 12-15 month period to support our growth rate,” said Tanuj.

As per an earlier official statement, it is targeting double-digit market share in Indian real estate distribution and is planning to expand to 25+ countries on the ground advising on global real estate. Currently, it has over 1100 employees in 22 cities and 10 countries.

Earlier, in 2015, it also raised $11Mn from a clutch of high net worth investors and acquired creative and design studio, Oryden Tech Labs for an undisclosed amount.

Recently, the Lodha Group also launched a $7 Mn fund focussed on startups offering smart city solutions and the overall real estate sector.

Other real estate startups which raised funds recently are NoBroker, Foyr, and Azuro.

[The development was reported by ETtech.]