PropertyGuru Group (‘PropertyGuru’ or ‘the Group’), Asia's leading property technology group, recently announced that
it has secured S$200 million (approx.) [US$145
million] in a Series D round of funding by leading
global investment firm KKR. As one of the most active private equity
investors in Southeast Asia (SEA), KKR boasts a long track record of successful
partnerships with leading technology companies across Asia and now joins
PropertyGuru’s coveted board of investors alongside TPG, Emtek and Square Peg
Capital.
This investment round bolsters PropertyGuru’s
leadership in SEA with the full consolidation of Vietnam’s No. 1 property
portal Batdongsan.com.vn into the Group, also announced today. The consolidation underscores the
Group’s commitment to Vietnam and collaboration with Batdongsan.com.vn that
started in 2016. Vietnam’s economic growth is robust with GDP projected to
expand by 6.8% in 2018. PropertyGuru is the property technology leader across
five markets in the region with its portals: PropertyGuru in Singapore and Malaysia, DDproperty.com in Thailand, Rumah.com in
Indonesia and Batdongsan.com.vn in Vietnam. In SEA, the Group has 55% market
share, reflecting the strong preference of property leading
global investment firm KKR. seekers for PropertyGuru’s portals. The Group
also runs Asia’s most prestigious property awards brand,
Asia Property Awards in 11 key markets across Asia.
The funding round provides significant impetus
to PropertyGuru’s leading position as a high-growth technology company in the
region. The Group will continue to fuel investments in technology and bring
solutions that benefit home seekers, real estate agents and property
developers. Earlier this year, the Group unveiled a successful Brand Refresh with
revamped websites and mobile apps that are powered by Artificial Intelligence –
an industry first in SEA.
Hari V.
Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer, PropertyGuru Group, said, “This
new investment is a great validation
of the technology-driven growth that PropertyGuru has
Hari continued, “We first invested in Batdongsan
in 2016 and have been impressed with their very strong market leadership
fuelled by delivering great value to the Vietnamese property sector. Today, we
reinforce our commitment to Vietnam with the consolidation of Batdongsan. We
look forward to making our regional expertise fully available to Vietnamese
property seekers as well as to help the country’s real estate industry benefit
from ASEAN integration.”
Ashish Shastry,
Member & Head of Southeast Asia, KKR, said, “We
are thrilled to be investing in
PropertyGuru, one of the most exciting tech-enabled businesses in Southeast
Asia. With rapid online migration well underway across many industries, the
PropertyGuru team, led by Hari V. Krishnan, has clearly established itself as
the Southeast Asian champion in the online property space. We look forward to
partnering with them to help take them to the next level.”
KKR’s investment in PropertyGuru is being funded
from KKR Asian Fund III. The investment is part of the firm’s strategy to
invest in high-growth markets that the firm believes can benefit from a rapid
increase in technology adoption. Other technology investments KKR has recently
announced in Southeast Asia include Voyager Innovations (the leading technology
company in the Philippines focused on digital payments, digital finance, and
marketing technologies) and Go-Jek (Indonesia’s leading on-demand mobile
platform for ride hailing, food delivery, and mobile payments).
Ganen
Sarvananthan, Chairman of the PropertyGuru Group Board and Co-Managing Partner
of TPG Capital Asia, said, “We are excited with
the two significant
developments of the company. We welcome KKR as
an investor and representatives on the board and look forward to working with
them to accelerate PropertyGuru’s growth across the region. Vietnam is an
important market for us; integrating Batdongsan into the PropertyGuru family
will help to penetrate new verticals and increase sales in the
market.”
Lê Xuân Trường,
Batdongsan Founder and Managing Director, said, “Batdongsan and PropertyGuru Group have had a long-standing partnership and we
are very pleased to cement that today as PropertyGuru invests further in the
business. Batdongsan continues to be the market leader in Vietnam. We are proud
of what we have achieved to date and are excited about the next phase of
Batdongsan’s growth as it becomes
Batdongsan.com.vn has over 4 million monthly
property seekers generating 70 million-page views and over 1 million new
property listings added every month. The market success of Batdongsan.com.vn is
credited to its strong team of over 600, spread over 9 cities in Vietnam.
Expected to rise to 20th in global
GDP rankings by 2050, Vietnam is primed to be the world’s fastest growing large
economy from now to 20502. The country’s real GDP expanded nearly
7.4 percent during the first quarter of this year and is expected to expand by
6.8 percent this year (up from 6.5 percent in World Bank’s previous forecast)3.
Coupled with a burgeoning middle class and rapid urbanisation, the market
presents tremendous upside opportunities for PropertyGuru. Vietnam is also one
of the fastest growing internet markets in the world – with 67 percent internet
penetration, over 70 million unique mobile users, and 55 million active social
media users as of this year.
Redpeak Advisers acted as financial advisor to
PropertyGuru, while Allen & Gledhill was its legal counsel.
1https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/06/14/vietnams-economic-prospect-improves-further-with-gdp-projected-to-expand-by-68-percent-in-2018
