NoBroker.com clocks 1.05 lakh buy-sell, home renting transactions in FY18

SAIF Partners-backed realty portal NoBroker.com achieved 1.05 lakh buy-sell and home renting transactions during last fiscal, helping customers save about Rs 650 crore in brokerage, a top company official said.

Bengaluru-based NoBroker.com is a brokerage-free property search portal that connects house owners and seekers directly by eliminating the middleman. It also has presence in Mumbai, Gurugram, Chennai and Pune.

Founded in 2014 by IIT and IIM alumni Akhil Gupta, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Saurabh Garg, the startup has raised USD 20 million fund so far from investors.

It raised an initial round of funding from SAIF Partners of USD 3 million in 2015, followed by a Series B of USD 17 million from Japanese investor Beenext and Korean investor KTB Ventures in 2016.

"Our portal makes it possible to buy-sell and rent houses without paying any brokerage. About 1.05 lakh transactions took place on our platform during 2017-18 fiscal which is a very encouraging number for us," Agarwal told PTI.

Since inception, he said about 40 lakh customers have used the platform and every month 1.8 lakh customers are being added.

Out of total transactions, he said about 97,000 deals were of renting while around 8,000 of buying-selling of housing properties, he said, adding that this led to a saving of about Rs 650 crore as brokerage, based on the average fees charged by the brokers for renting and buy-sale.

Asked about the revenue-model, Agarwal said the company charges a minimal amount from its customers for some premium service, like access to more number of listings.

NoBrokers.com also provides some other related services to generate revenue such as preparing rental agreements, movers and packers services, special packages for NRIs and relocation services for corporates, among others.

Agarwal refused to share the revenue numbers for last fiscal, but expressed confidence that the company would soon break even.

On future fund raising plan, Agarwal said the company has raised Rs 138 crore so far and the same is being deployed for expansion and technology upgradation.

NoBrokers.com has plans to expand to more cities, including Delhi and Noida, he added.

"Tenants have been paying brokerage year on year without seeing any advantage of the middleman. The only reason the intermediation existed was that there was a huge information asymmetry in the market," Agarwal said, adding that the portal works on the backbone of an algorithm that identifies and restricts brokers from its platform.