Anil Ambani invests Rs. 80 crore in e-realty firm Square Yards

India's largest online to offline (O2O) real estate transaction player Square Yards has raised USD 12 million investment from the Private Equity arm of Anil Ambani led Reliance Group.

This is Square Yards' first institutional investment after it had raised USD 11 million from a clutch of HNW investors last year.

Founded in 2013, Square Yards is the largest distributor for primary residential real estate in India, and it enjoys a leadership position in the Non Resident Indian (NRI) markets.

"With this collaboration, the company will be able to draw on Reliance's extensive experience, particularly in scaling up the business to a higher growth trajectory and creating significant shareholder value in the process. Besides capital, we will also get access to best practices in running large consumer businesses at scale, with the participation of Reliance," said Founder and COO Square Yards, Kanika Gupta Shori.

With the fresh capital infusion, Square Yards aims to strengthen its distribution network across Indian and global markets. Its plan is to expand operations to more than 25 countries on the ground, advising on global real estate, and become the largest mortgage advisory and developer marketing firm in India.

"Timing of this investment couldn't have been better for us, with Government's blow on black money and RERA kicking in soon, Real Estate will get consolidated, organized and institutionalized. Secondary market will be most impacted (prices will drop) but eventually volume surge will help us win even more market share. This is beginning of organized real estate in India," said CEO and Founder, Tanuj Shori.

Square Yards invested in building a multi-modal global distribution channel comprising the largest field sales team of real estate advisors in India and in other NRI markets.

It claims to deliver gross transaction value of around USD 400 to 450 million per year, which puts it in the league of the top five developers in India, by ability to move inventory.