PropertyGuru raises S$300M to accelerate growth in Southeast Asia
PropertyGuru Group (‘PropertyGuru’ or ‘the Group’), Southeast Asia’s leading property technology (“PropTech”) company, today announced that it has received an additional investment of S$300 million (approx.) [US$220 million] in recent funding rounds by leading global investment firms TPG and KKR (via KKR Asian Fund III).
This investment comes at an extraordinary time for PropertyGuru: With 24% y-o-y revenue growth, PropertyGuru beat 2019 forecasts and continues to lead in Southeast Asia with 57% market share* (4x nearest player).
The funding will accelerate PropertyGuru’s growth strategy across all key markets as the Group ramps up its investment to meet the rapidly evolving needs in the property ecosystem. The continued support of TPG (over the past five years) and KKR (over the past two years) will see PropertyGuru further invest in identified strategic areas of growth, including its mortgage marketplace launched this year- PropertyGuru Finance, an end-to-end sales enablement solution for property developers- PropertyGuru FastKey and data capabilities to empower property seekers across Southeast Asia to ‘Find.Finance.Own’ their homes.
Olivier Lim, Chairman of the Board, PropertyGuru Group, said, “Since its founding in 2007, PropertyGuru has secured its leadership by continuing to provide increasing value to all its customers and users. We have scaled rapidly across Southeast Asia by anticipating and addressing consumer needs with a data-driven strategy, underpinned by a talented team of ‘Gurus’. This year, amidst the changing business realities, the demonstrable strength of our platforms has solidified our relative market leadership and provides new opportunities to accelerate both organic and inorganic growth with new investments. This increased support from TPG and KKR to accelerate growth is a great validation of the Group’s successful performance, its leadership team and their strategy to unlock the opportunities that will achieve the Group’s ambitions in the region.”
Hari V. Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, PropertyGuru Group, said, “Our strong financial performance over the last few years has enabled us to invest aggressively and smartly, to build what is today an integrated and differentiated technology platform that caters to the unique opportunities in Southeast Asian markets.
The additional investments from TPG and KKR will enable us to continue building Southeast Asia’s property trust platform and accelerate our momentum in key markets like Malaysia and Vietnam. We help property seekers ‘Find.Finance.Own’ their home and these new investments will accelerate the growth plans we have identified as more consumers and customers move towards digital solutions for property buying and selling. Over the last thirteen years we helped create the PropTech industry in this region, and as the market leader we look forward to providing further innovations to digitize the property sector.”
Upgrades and new offerings so far in 2020
PropertyGuru’s belief in technology as a connector and solution to resolve home-seekers’ pain-points has seen it relentlessly invest and expand its service offerings in data and digital tools to improve transparency in the property ecosystem for consumers, developers, and agent partners across Southeast Asia.
This year, PropertyGuru expanded into home finance with the launch of a mortgage marketplace in Singapore, ‘PropertyGuru Finance’, as well as a major upgrade to the property seeker experience in Vietnam. The Group enhanced offerings to provide data-driven insights as well as additional sources of income for agent partners. For property developers, significant enhancements were made to PropertyGuru FastKey with the launch of PropertyGuru FastKey – StoryTeller- a digital product that allows 360-degree immersive walkthroughs of a project, its units and the surrounding cityscape, to showcase and explore properties with real-time availability, straight to the screens of property seekers who explore properties from the convenience and safety of homes. This solution enables property developers to start marketing their projects much earlier, even before constructing the sales gallery or show flat.
As behaviours adopted during the pandemic reshape consumer habits and preferences in a new normal, digital transformation is accelerated across sectors. Per the latest report by Bain & Company and Facebook, nearly 70% of Southeast Asians are expected to be digital consumers by the end of 2020. The dynamic landscape is thus revealing new growth opportunities in PropertyGuru’s existing markets to enhance and expand offerings to consumers, property agents and developers.
