Kunal Shah-backed Blox buys into real estate advisory firm Guardians

By Priyal Mahtta

  • 13 Nov 2024
Blox founders Aditya Jhaveri and Shivani Karia Jhaveri

Kunal Shah-backed proptech platform Blox, which provides tech-enabled homebuying experience, said Wednesday it is buying an 11% stake in Guardians, a Mumbai-based real estate advisory firm, for about $12 million (Rs 101 crore). 

The company plans to increase its stake in Guardians to 50% over the next three years, it said in a statement. 

Blox founder and CEO Aditya Jhaveri said the deal is part of its plan to expand its footprint outside Mumbai after consolidating its market share in the city to about 20-25% in the next two-three years. 

“We want to consolidate our 20-25% combined market share in Mumbai. Once we have cemented that, we would be looking to go to NCR (National Capital Region) and Bangalore,” he said. 

With this expansion, the company also plans to expand its margins, he said. 

“If these two companies come together, we double our margin on the same transaction as a group,” Jhaveri said. “From a customer or developer standpoint, it cuts out a couple of layers as everything flows through one ecosystem,” he added. 

Founded in 2020 by Aditya Jhaveri and Shivani Karia Jhaveri, Blox allows online purchase of residential real estate. So far, the company has raised about $35 million in funding from investors including CRED’s Kunal Shah and Justin Mateen (co-founder of Tinder). 

The company said it aims to increase its gross transaction value to $10 billion from the current $2 billion in the next five years with the latest acquisition. 

The development comes after Blox acquired a controlling stake in real estate brokerage firm Justo in January this year. The enterprise value of the transaction was not disclosed, but media reports pegged it around Rs 350 crore. Prior to that, Blox acquired Plinthstone REMA in 2022. 

Jhaveri said that there were no acquisition plans on the horizon but added that the company may explore inorganic expansion if it finds assets that fit its strategy or while exploring a new market.   

The company is also set to separate its development management vertical in a bid to streamline operations of this segment as a separate entity. Currently, it has two development management assets, one in Tardeo and other in Mulund, in Mumbai. “From all strategic standpoints and hygiene, we would move that out of our primary technology-led brokerage platform and entities, so that we can demarcate it properly,” he said.