News Corp announced today that it has acquired a 25% stake in the parent company of PropTiger.com, a leading digital real estate marketing platform in India, for US$30 million.
News Corp’s investment continues the acceleration of its global digital footprint with an emphasis on India, where the company also has a presence through its Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers businesses.
The investment creates a network effect to complement and build on the strength of the company’s collection of businesses, which include leaders in news, book publishing and digital real estate. News Corp owns Move, Inc. (“Move”), operator of realtor.com®. Move has the most up-to-date and accurate for-sale listings of any digital real estate company in America. In addition, News Corp has a 61.6% stake in REA Group Limited (“REA”), operator of the leading Australian residential property website, realestate.com.au. REA also has a substantial stake in iProperty, the leading digital real estate advertising business across South East Asia.
PropTiger.com will benefit from News Corp’s digital and product expertise, drawing on its experience with REA and Move.
“India has more than 270 million Internet users and the number is growing exponentially. 1 There is no doubt that the development of digital is empowering individuals and transforming industries, and we are extremely enthusiastic about the potential for PropTiger.com as the country fulfills its digital destiny,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “PropTiger.com will provide analysis, information and insight so that Indians will be better informed when they make the most significant investment decision any family will make, buying a home. We believe the site will be the most important platform for developers seeking to market new properties and the most trusted and reliable source for purchasers, many of whom will be buying for the first time.”
At least 10,000 properties, with a combined value of over US$1 billion, have already been bought by Indian homebuyers through PropTiger.com. It is estimated that India will be a US$158 billion residential real estate market by 2020.2
News Corp’s investment is in Elara Technologies Pte Ltd (“Elara”), which owns PropTiger.com. PropTiger.com was founded in 2011 by Dhruv Agarwala, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal. Among its other investors are Accel Partners, SAIF Partners and Horizen Ventures. As part of the investment, Raju Narisetti, News Corp Senior Vice President, Strategy, will also join Elara’s Singapore-based board.
“News Corp and PropTiger.com have a shared vision to use technology, high quality data and rich content to bring transparency and simplicity to the home buying experience and to help consumers make well informed decisions,” said Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder of PropTiger.com.
For more information visit http://www.newscorp.com.
