Quikr, which now operates leading transaction marketplaces built on top of India’s largest classifieds platform, today announced the acquisition of India Property Online Private Limited, a leading full-stack real estate platform based out of Chennai. The move is another important step in Quikr’s strategy of building transactions on top of classifieds.

With this Quikr has now made a total of 14 acquisitions to date. Exactly a year back, Quikr had acquired HDFC Realty and HDFC Developers, in an all stocks deal.

India Property offers solutions that simplify property buying, selling and renting. It lists over 6 lakh properties and 8000+ verified builder projects across 15+ cities in India. The company monetizes on both the demand and supply side of the market, with solutions enabling property search, diligence, financing, and transactions. It has also built a powerful analytics platform using street-level transaction data for residential properties covering about 5 million properties in South India. India Property is backed by leading VC fund Bertelsmann India Investments and Mayfield.

On the announcement, Pranay Chulet, Founder and CEO, Quikr, said, “With $180B market potential, Indian real estate is one of the largest sectors of the economy. Since verticalization of our business, we have looked at both organic and inorganic ways to go deeper in this strategically important category. The strong base of India Property in Southern states and its full-stack model will help us grow our transaction business while also adding to our classifieds base.”

Real Estate contributed to 35% of Quikr revenue in FY17-18 and is a profitable vertical for the company. The business is on track to again grow more than 100% in FY18-19. The company is now the largest transactional player in real estate with two growing transactional models – a co-living business to offer shared rentals to millennials, and a brokerage business for home buying. Both businesses derive their supply and demand from Quirk’s sizable classifieds base in QuikrHomes and Commonfloor. In the co-living business, Quikr is the largest player in the country with over 70,000 tenants at the end of November.

Commenting on the development, Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO, India Property Online Private Limited said, “India Property is one of the earliest full-stack online real estate businesses. We have focused on the South Indian market and built a comprehensive solution suite for buyers and sellers with several transaction enablers. We have demonstrated monetization around these products and will now be able to offer them across Quikr’s real estate base.”

Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director at Bertelsmann India Investments said, “We are excited to partner Quikr as they build market-leading positions in horizontal as well as vertical classified businesses including in real estate. With this transaction, I am confident India Property will play a strong role in driving Quikr’s growth in South India.”

YES Securities Investment Banking acted as the exclusive financial advisor while IndusLaw and S&R Associates were the legal advisors for this transaction.

Quikr, which now operates leading transaction marketplaces built on top of India’s largest classifieds platform, is India’s largest platform that is used by over 30 million unique users a month. It is present in 1200 cities in India and operates several large classifieds businesses across C2C, Cars, Education, Homes, Jobs, and Services. Quikr is accessible across mobile app, mobile site as well as desktop, and allows consumers as well as small businesses to sell, buy, rent and find things across its multiple categories with great ease. Quikr’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Kinnevik, Warburg Pincus, Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, NGP Capital, Steadview Capital, Omidyar Network etc.
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