Housing.com parent Elara Technologies acquires FastFox.com for O2O home rental foray

FastFox, which includes investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Blume Ventures among others, was valued at just under Rs 100 crore at the time of the transaction.

Monday April 01, 2019 , 2 min Read

Singapore-headquartered Elara Technologies Pte Ltd, the owner of real estate portals Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com, announced it has acquired Gurugam-based rental brokerage platform FastFox.com.

While the company did not diclose the financial consideration of the deal, it said FastFox was valued at just under Rs 100 crore at the time of the transaction. The acquisition marks Elara Tech's foray into the online-to-offline (O2O) brokerage space. FastFox partners with brokers and landlords to list residential properties online for rent. It allows home seekers to check pictures and access in-depth information about available properties.

FastFox investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners and Blume Ventures among others.

Elara Tech claims to be growing at over 60 percent year-on-year, and said that the acquisition will allow it to get a strong foothold in the the online-to-offline home rental space, which has a market opportunity of over Rs 20,000 crore.

FastFox.com currently primarily operates in the Gurugram market, and has grown significantly over the last 12 months to capture nearly 5 percent share in the home rental market in the city.

On the acquisition, Dhruv Agarwala, CEO, Elara Technologies, said,

“ With the acquisition of FastFox.com, we aim to catalyse our next phase of growth by driving on-ground transactions working closely with home owners, home seekers and brokers...We intend to use our capital and expertise to expand FastFox’s offering beyond Gurugram to other markets in India.”

In August last year, News Corp-backed Elara Technologies had raised $35 million in debt funding from Citi Singapore to expand its business and invest in new products and technologies. Other than News Corp, Australia-based group firm REA, SAIF Partners, Softbank and Accel Partners are the major investors in Elara Technologies.

Started in 2011, Elara Technologies had first founded PropTiger.com, after which it acquired Makaan.com in 2015, and Housing.com in 2017.