MPowered, an asset management services provider to real estate owners, said on Monday it has raised $21 million (Rs 156.7 crore) in its pre-Series A funding round from a group of US-based high-net-worth individuals.
The funding was led by serial entrepreneurs and real estate professionals Ashok Nichani and Shelly Nichani, MPowered said in a statement.
The firm, operated by M Services LLP, said it will use the funds to invest in new verticals of real estate such as warehousing, residential and commercial spaces, and to develop its technology solutions.
MPowered was launched earlier this year by serial entrepreneurs Sudeep Singh and Bhavna Juneja. The startup offers design and asset management services across commercial, residential and retail spaces.
Prior to launching this startup, Singh was CEO at co-working space GoWork. Juneja has experience in the realty-tech industry in the US and Canada, the statement said. According to her LinkedIn profile, Juneja was previously an executive at US-based IT services firm Infinity.
There have been a few investments in real estate platforms in the past few months after funding in such startups had slowed since the peak of 2015.
In March, Strata Property Management Pvt. Ltd, a real-estate investment tech startup, raised a seed round of funding led by SAIF Partners and Mayfield India.
In January, real estate software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform MultiplyMyLeads.com raised an undisclosed sum from investors including Frontline Strategy Funds and SucSEED Venture Partners.
In September last year, prop-tech firm Square Yards raised $20 million from media house Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) and Japanese real estate investment company Genkai Capital.
After 2015, the realty-tech segment witnessed a string of mergers and acquisitions. This included a merger between online real estate brokerage PropTiger.com and property listing portal Housing.com in 2017. PropTiger had earlier acquired property search portal Makaan.com.
News Corp, the largest investor in PropTiger, owns the parent of this website.
In early 2016, Tiger Global-backed CommonFloor merged with online classifieds player Quikr.
The early movers in the online real estate brokerage business were Info Edge’s 99acres and BCCL’s Magicbricks.com.