Indiaproperty.com, an online platform listing residential properties for buying & selling and run by Chennai-based India Property Online Pvt Ltd, has been demerged from Matrimony.com Pvt Ltd (formerly Consim Info) and has raised $7 million (Rs 38 crore) from Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund.
The two VC firms are also existing investors in the parent firm Matrimony.com, which owns and runs various other online properties such as BharatMatrimony.com, Clickjobs.com and more.
The development was first reported by Business Standard, which quoted the firm’s CEO Ganesh Vasudevan as saying that the money was committed last year but came in only after the demerger process was completed a few weeks ago.
He added that the firm is already in talks to raise its Series B round of $10-12 million (up to Rs 65 crore) for further expansion. Existing investors Mayfield Fund and Canaan Partners may also participate in the round.
Indiaproperty plans to use the Series B round of funding to improve technology and support marketing initiatives, Vasudevan told BS. The deal is expected to be completed in a couple of months.
The company’s demerger from Matrimony.com allows it to approach new investors with a different value proposition, as against a bouquet of consumer internet properties of the parent firm. The site has more than 6 lakh property listings from all over the country and claims to have over 25 million page views a day. It also runs a news portal called PropertyBytes.com, which features news and updates about real estate business and market trends.
We tried contacting both the investors and the firm for more details and will update the copy as we get to speak to them, but the demerger signifies a few possibilities.
A vertical demerger means all existing investors of Matrimony.com are also shareholders of the new property search firm. Alternatively, Matrimony.com could have hived off the property search business to the new entity as a sale and roped in investors afresh.
Matrimony.com had earlier raised funds from Draper Investment and Bessemer Venture Partners besides Canaan Partners and Mayfield. It is said to be the next in line to go for an IPO among Indian consumer internet firms.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)
