Online classifieds portal Quikr acquires India Property to expand its real-estate vertical

Large-scale, cross-category online classifieds business Quikr announced the acquisition of Chennai-based real-estate platform India Property Online on Monday, December 17.

Quikr, with more than 30 million monthly customers and small business users in 940 cities, is building transactions on top of classifieds.

In a statement, Pranay Chulet, Founder and CEO of Quikr, said, "With a $180 billion market potential, Indian real estate is one of the largest sectors of the economy. Since verticalisation of our business, we have looked at both organic and inorganic ways to go deeper in this strategically important category. The strong base of India Property in the southern states and its full-stack model will help us grow our transaction business while adding to our classifieds base."

India Property, previously a part of Consim Info founded by Murugavel Janakiraman and which operates Bharat Matrimony, Community Matrimony and Elite Matrimony. India Property was established as a separate entity in March 2013 with Ganesh Vasudevan as the CEO.

Ganesh said, "India Property is one of the earliest full-stack online real-estate businesses. We have focused on the South Indian market and built a comprehensive solution suite for buyers and sellers with several transaction enablers. We have demonstrated monetisation around these products and will now be able to offer them across Quikr's real estate base."

India Property offers property marketing solutions serving builders, real-estate agents and homeowners to sell or rent their properties. It lists over six lakh properties and more than 8,000 verified builder projects across more than 15 Indian cities. It is backed by Bertelsmann India Investments.

Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director at Bertelsmann, said, "We are excited to partner with Quikr as they build market-leading positions in horizontal as well as vertical classified businesses including in real estate. With this transaction, I am confident India Property will play a strong role in driving Quikr’s growth in South India.”

YES Securities Investment Banking acted as the exclusive financial advisor while IndusLaw and S&R Associates were the legal advisors for this transaction.