SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PropertyGuru Group (“PropertyGuru”), Asia’s leading online property portal group, announced today that it has received a S$175 million investment from a strategic consortium of three investors. This investment, the largest in the technology sector in Southeast Asia this year1, will support PropertyGuru’s innovation, marketing and further expansion in the region with the aim of increasing its leadership position.
The investing consortium comprises global private investment firm TPG (“TPG”), Indonesia’s largest media group Emtek Group (“Emtek”), and leading Asia Pacific-based tech venture capital firm Square Peg Capital (“Square Peg”). The transaction is expected to close by mid-June, at which point representatives from the consortium will join PropertyGuru’s board.
As the leading property portal in Southeast Asia, PropertyGuru has built market leadership across Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, garnering over 11 million monthly consumer visits, 104 million page views and a 28% traffic growth per annum, with mobile making up 52% of total traffic. The value of real estate transactions through the PropertyGuru platform is estimated to be S$14 billion per annum; an approximate 10% of all property transactions in the region.
“PropertyGuru has built its track record on a vision of consumer-centric innovation that empowers people to make better property decisions. We will capitalise on this investment to tap into the Southeast Asia property market potential and developments in the digital space to further our regional agenda,” said Steve Melhuish, CEO and co-founder of PropertyGuru.
This latest round of investment brings on board deep-seated Asian management expertise, with all three parties possessing strong track records in the online and tech firms sectors.
“PropertyGuru is already the region’s leading real estate platform, with exciting growth prospects. It represents a great addition to TPG's Asia portfolio as well as strengthens our global internet investment reach. We look forward to lending our industry expertise to pursue growth, in partnership with the PropertyGuru team, Emtek Group and Square Peg. Together, we believe we can further reinforce PropertyGuru’s already powerful brand, as we've done with similar portfolio companies across the globe," said Ganen Sarvananthan, TPG Partner and Managing Director.
TPG already owns complementary internet and real estate companies in its portfolio, including Uber, Airbnb, Lynda.com, SurveyMonkey, RentPath and 8990 (Philippines), among others.
Paul Bassat, Partner and co-Founder of Square Peg, said, “Square Peg sees tremendous potential for PropertyGuru to continue to innovate and expand on its market leading positions in multiple geographies. This investment underscores Square Peg’s philosophy of building and investing in businesses, which have the capacity to leverage multiple growth levers from positions of strength.”
Emtek Group is already PropertyGuru’s partner in Indonesia and will now further strengthen its relationship through this latest round of investment. Emtek Group’s Commissioner, Jay Wacher said, “Consistent with Emtek’s focus of investing in technologies that shape businesses and the broader society and where it can leverage its media expertise, this investment in PropertyGuru presents a prime opportunity for us to deepen our exposure to the online classified’s business. Our investment is aimed at fast-tracking PropertyGuru’s plans to innovate ahead of market needs and extend its leadership in the property space.”
“We're delighted to be working with three outstanding investors who each bring complementary strengths and share our vision on the market’s opportunities. We look forward to accelerating our leadership in South East Asia with their support,” Steve Melhuish added.
Scout24 – previously a minority shareholder will exit the business to focus on their core wholly-owned property and car online classified businesses in Europe.
About PropertyGuru Group
PropertyGuru Group is Asia’s leading online property portal group used by more than 11 million property buyers, viewing over 104 million property pages and generating over 500,000 enquiries for real estate developer and agent advertisers – every month – across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Headquartered in Singapore, PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 by two entrepreneurs with a vision to simplify the property search process and help buyers, sellers and investors make better property decisions faster. Taking advantage of Asia’s growing affluence, property demand and online explosion, PropertyGuru has become market leader in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.
The Group’s continued focus on innovation has been a key enabler to its success. PropertyGuru has developed and launched 15 mobile applications in four countries and three languages. At present, the Group records over 2.5 million downloaded mobile apps. PropertyGuru was also the first to integrate its website with social media and first to launch Singapore’s only dedicated property newspaper, read by more than 100,000 readers island-wide every month. PropertyGuru has also developed a property events platform with approximately 30 shows held annually across four countries, addressing 30,000 potential property buyers on the ground.
PropertyGuru offices in the region include:
- PropertyGuru.com.sg in Singapore
- PropertyGuru.com.my in Malaysia
- DDProperty.com in Thailand
- Rumah.com in Indonesia
ABOUT STEVE MELHUISH
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Steve is an award-winning entrepreneur. In the last two decades, he built profitable companies throughout Asia and Europe. He co-founded PropertyGuru due to his personal frustrations at trying to find a new home in 2006. Today, PropertyGuru is the leading online property group in South East Asia used by over 10 million property seekers and 31,000 property advertisers every month.
Prior to Steve’s current role, he held advised various firms including Skype, AOL, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Extreme Media, iPass and Ariadne Capital. He also led global teams and a US$500 million turnover business unit for Cable & Wireless. In 2007, Steve was awarded the Spirit of Enterprise Award in recognition of his contributions to entrepreneurship in Singapore. Steve has invested in 4 digital media firms and is passionate about Asia + Digital.
About TPG
TPG is a leading global private investment firm founded in 1992 with over $67 billion of assets under management and offices in San Francisco, Fort Worth, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. TPG has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, debt financings, recapitalizations, spinouts, growth investments, joint ventures and restructurings. TPG has been active in Asia for more than 20 years, and has extensive experience investing in internet and real estate companies throughout the world, including Uber, Airbnb, RentPath and 8990 (Philippines), among others. For more information visit www.tpg.com.
About Emtek Group
The Emtek Group is the largest media, content and technology businesses in Indonesia. Emtek Group operates three free to air television channels, a Pay-TV business and several IT solutions business, and has recently established a substantial online media presence through its subsidiary PT Kreatif Media Karya (KMK). The national free to air television businesses in the Emtek Group comprise two national broadcasters, SCTV and Indosiar, and regional broadcaster for Jakarta, O-Channel. The Pay-TV business operates as Nexmedia. In conjunction with its television businesses, Emtek Group owns controlling interests in several content production ventures, PT Screenplay Produksi (creates film for television and drama series) and PT Animasi Kartun Indonesia (creates children’s animation). Emtek has a substantial interest in Plan B Media Ltd, the second largest out of home advertising business in Thailand. KMK is focused on creating growth for the Group in the online industry. KMK currently owns and operates the Internet portals Liputan6.com, a top 3 news portal in Indonesia, Vidio.com, home to content from SCTV, Indosiar and leading independent production companies, and Karir.com, a leading local job portal. KMK has also made investments in several other companies including Rumah.com (PropertyGuru’s Indonesian business), Bukalapak.com, Lakupon.com, and Bobobobo.com.. For more information, please visit www.emtek.co.id.
About Square Peg Capital
Square Peg Capital was founded in Australia in 2012. Square Peg today is a globally focussed investor in venture and growth stage online and technology companies. We have significant operations in Israel as well as Melbourne and Sydney and a presence in Los Angeles, Boston and Munich providing us with strong networks with investors and entrepreneurs globally.
1 For external third-party investment. Sources: CrunchBase, TechInAsia, MergerMarket and CB Insights.