Rupert Murdoch-led News Corp acquires 25% stake in PropTiger.com for $30 mn

Raju Narisetti joins board of PropTiger's parent company

A second-time entrepreneur, Dhruv Agarwala was a student at Harvard Business School when he first met Rupert Murdoch. He was inspired by the Australian-American business magnate’s “hunger and energy”, he recalls.

Almost 14 years later, on Tuesday, Murdoch’s News Corp announced an investment of $30 million (Rs 186 crore) in a real estate website, PropTiger.com, that Agarwala had started with two friends, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal. “When I met him in the US while the investment was still in the process of being finalised, the first thing I noticed was that his hunger and energy had not waned even a bit in all these years,” said Agarwala.

News Corp, which has earlier invested in real estate websites in the US and Australia, has bought a 25 per cent stake in Noida-based PropTiger.com. The investment further validates News Corp’s focus on India, where it already has presence through Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers. “The investment creates a network effect to complement and build on the strength of the company’s collection of businesses, which include leaders in news, book publishing and digital real estate,” News Corp stated.

Two months ago, News Corp had agreed to buy Move, which operates a US property website, realtor.com, for $950 million. The New York-based company also holds a majority stake in REA Group, which operates Australian residential property website realestate.com.au.

With this investment, Raju Narisetti, senior vice-president, strategy, at News Corp, has joined the board of PropTiger.com’s Singapore-based parent company, Elara Technologies Pte Ltd. Narisetti was the first editor (till 2009) of Mint, the Delhi-based business daily, a competitor to Business Standard.

Besides News Corp, PropTiger.com has raised an additional $7 million from existing investors — SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures.

“India has 270 million internet users and the number is growing,” said Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp. “PropTiger.com will provide analysis, information and insight so that Indians will be better informed when they make the most significant investment decision any family will make, buying a home.”

Besides News Corp, PropTiger.com has raised an additional $7 million from existing investors — SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures. Prior to this round, PropTiger.com had a total funding of $7 mn from the three venture capital funds and some angel investors.

Founded in February 2011, PropTiger.com is an independent real estate advisor with presence across India and with a little over 250 developer partners which market their new properties through it.

According to the statement issued by News Corp, around 10,000 properties with a combined value of over $1 billion have been bought by Indian home buyers through PropTiger.com since its inception. The company gets almost 40 per cent of its traffic from mobile applications.