PropertyGuru secures US$145mil in Series D funding

• Round is led by global investment firm KKR via the KKR Asian Fund III
• In SEA, the group has 55% market share and hosts the Asia Property Awards

PROPERTYGURU Group, an Asian property technology group, on Oct 31 announced that it has secured approximately S$200 million or US$145 million in a Series D round of funding by global investment firm KKR.  

As one of the most active private equity investors in Southeast Asia (SEA), KKR boasts a long track record of successful partnerships with leading technology companies across Asia and now joins PropertyGuru’s board of investors alongside TPG, Emtek and Square Peg Capital.

This investment round bolsters PropertyGuru’s leadership in SEA with the full consolidation of Vietnam property portal Batdongsan.com.vn into the group. The consolidation underscores the group’s commitment to Vietnam and collaboration with Batdongsan.com.vn that started in 2016.

PropertyGuru is a property technology leader across five markets in the region with its portals: PropertyGuru in Singapore and Malaysia, DDproperty.com in Thailand, Rumah.com in Indonesia and Batdongsan.com.vn in Vietnam.

In SEA, the group has 55% market share and also runs Asian property awards brand, Asia Property Awards in 11 key markets across Asia.

The funding round provides significant impetus to PropertyGuru’s position as a high-growth technology company in the region. The group will continue to fuel investments in technology and bring solutions that benefit home seekers, real estate agents and property developers.

Earlier this year, the group unveiled a successful Brand Refresh with revamped websites and mobile apps that are powered by Artificial Intelligence – an industry first in SEA.

PropertyGuru Group chief executive officer Hari V Krishnan (pic), said, “This new investment is a great validation of the technology-driven growth that PropertyGuru has delivered. Backed by a decade of market leadership in Southeast Asia and delivering a record year for business performance - today the group is profitable, cash flow positive and has revenues growing more than 25% year-on-year. We are pleased to have KKR, a blue-chip tech investor, join our board, as we have ambitious plans for innovation and growth in the decade ahead.”  

Hari continued, “We first invested in Batdongsan in 2016 and have been impressed with their very strong market leadership fuelled by delivering great value to the Vietnamese property sector. Today, we reinforce our commitment to Vietnam with the consolidation of Batdongsan. We look forward to making our regional expertise fully available to Vietnamese property seekers as well as to help the country’s real estate industry benefit from Asean integration.”

Ashish Shastry, member & head of Southeast Asia, KKR, said, “We are thrilled to be investing in PropertyGuru, one of the most exciting tech-enabled businesses in Southeast Asia. With rapid online migration well underway across many industries, the PropertyGuru team, led by Hari V Krishnan, has clearly established itself as the Southeast Asian champion in the online property space. We look forward to partnering with them to help take them to the next level.”

KKR’s investment in PropertyGuru is being funded from KKR Asian Fund III. The investment is part of the firm’s strategy to invest in high-growth markets that the firm believes can benefit from a rapid increase in technology adoption.

Other technology investments KKR has recently announced in Southeast Asia include Voyager Innovations (the leading technology company in the Philippines focused on digital payments, digital finance, and marketing technologies) and Go-Jek (Indonesia’s leading on-demand mobile platform for ride hailing, food delivery, and mobile payments).

Batdongsan founder and managing director Le Xuan Trung, said, “Batdongsan and PropertyGuru Group have had a long-standing partnership and we are very pleased to cement that today as PropertyGuru invests further in the business. Batdongsan continues to be the market leader in Vietnam.

“We are proud of what we have achieved to date and are excited about the next phase of Batdongsan’s growth as it becomes part of Southeast Asia’s leading online property Group. PropertyGuru brings the region’s best real estate opportunities and technology expertise and with these, we will better serve the needs of property seekers in one of the fastest growing property and digital markets of Southeast Asia.”

Batdongsan.com.vn has over four million monthly property seekers generating 70 million page views and over one million new property listings added every month.