Bertelsmann India Investments, the investment arm of German media giant Bertelsmann, has invested an undisclosed amount in Chennai-based India Property Online Pvt Ltd which runs an online platform listing residential properties for buying & selling and run through IndiaProperty.com. Existing investors Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund also participated in the new round which is estimated to be worth $12 million in total.
In July this year, VCCircle reported that the company is eyeing a new fundraise of around $10 million for expansion.
Pankaj Makkar, managing director of Bertelsmann India Investments, who will also join the board of IndiaProperty, said, “IndiaProperty has attained an attractive position in the Indian real estate market, especially in the new properties segment, through its great execution abilities, a differentiated offering for the customer and has all the right attributes to be a leader in this space.â€
IndiaProperty.com offers property marketing solutions serving builders, real estate agents and home owners to sell or rent their properties, while offering a feature-rich interface for property buyers to search and identify properties that match their requirement. The company was founded by Murugavel Janakiraman who also founded Matrimony.com, an online matrimony classified platform in India.
IndiaProperty was formerly a part of Matrimony.com (earlier known as Consim Info), which runs a string of matrimony-related sites including BharatMatrimony.com, EliteMatrimony.com and Matrimony Directory, among others. However, it (IndiaProperty) was demerged last year and later raised fresh capital of around of $7 million from Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund.
Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and chairman of IndiaProperty, said, “The addition of a global media powerhouse like Bertelsmann, as an investor and partner, will help us further establish our position in the market.â€
Ganesh Vasudevan, CEO of IndiaProperty, said, “It is great to have Bertelsmann as a partner by our side. Over the last two years we have emerged as the fastest growing player in the industry, operating in the top 20 cities in India, and intend to invest the capital raised into growth initiatives.â€
Bertelsmann India Investments focuses on investments in the digital, education, media and services sectors. It focuses on early stage as well as growth stage investments.
This is the second direct investment of Bertelsmann India Investments after it invested in Authorgen Technologies and its online education service wiziq.com earlier this year.
Bertelsmann is an international media company whose core divisions encompass television (RTL Group), book publishing (Penguin Random House), magazine publishing (Gruner + Jahr), services (Arvato), and printing (Be Printers) in some 50 countries. In 2012, the company’s businesses, with their more than 100,000 employees, generated revenues of €16.1 billion.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
