The investment in CommonFloor is Google Capital's third investment in Asia and second in Indian-founded startup after it participated in a $31 million round in help-desk startup Freshdesk last year.
Google Capital is a growth equity fund that invests in companies that use technology to change the way people experience the world. Some of its investments include SurveyMonkey, Lending Club and Credit Karma. "This is a testimony to the fact that Google believes in CommonFloor's team and vision. They strongly believe that we will change the real estate space in the country. We look forward to their technical and operational expertise to scale up our business," said Sumit Jain, CEO and co-founder of CommonFloor.com.
Jain didn't disclose the size of the investment, but he said that Google Capital will take a board seat in the company. Last year, the Bengaluru-based company has raised $30 million from American hedge fund Tiger Global Management, taking the total funds raised so far to nearly $50 million. Accel Partners had invested in an earlier round.
David Lawee, partner at Google Capital, said, "CommonFloor.com makes it easy for people in India to research, buy, sell and rent real estate. The online real estate market in India is poised for tremendous growth, which is why we're excited to work closely with CommonFloor's excellent team in the months and years ahead." Jain and his team attended Tiger Global Conference in New York in October where he met Lawee and decided to work together.
The company is deploying funds towards technology enhancement, product development and marketing. "We want to develop data-driven products to help property buyers make informed decisions. We have 1 lakh projects and half a million active listing on our platform. We have so far mapped 10 million properties across 200 cities in the country. The challenge in India is we have too much information. We are going to make it easier for customers to buy property online. We will work towards how we can bring customers closer to the buying decision," he added.
The organized real estate market in the country is expected to almost double from $79 billion in 2013 to $140 billion in 2017 with 75% of the demand fuelled by residential properties, said a recent report by Google India. The report said that 53% of real estate transactions in the country are influenced by the internet and 40% of the searches are through mobile phones.
As internet and smartphone penetration in the country has grown substantially, Jain and his 1,000-odd team are working towards helping every Indian own a property. "We have exhaustive neighborhood information on CommonFloor which help you identify the right locality and neighborhood you want to invest in. Google, for instance, is indexing every property and every page on the internet to make it easy for people to search information. At CommonFloor, we intend to map every property on our platform in the next two years to make it easier for property buyers to search properties on our platform," said Jain.
CommonFloor is in talks with the government for its ambitious affordable housing. It has lowered interest rates on home loans, established a framework for REITs and, most recently, relaxed FDI norms in the construction sector.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Google Capital,CommonFloor.com,SurveyMonkey,Google India,Accel Partners
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