Online classifieds platform Quikr today announced that it has merged CommonFloor.Com with its real estate vertical QuikrHomes to create an industry leader in online real estate.
This is Quikr's fourth and the biggest strategic move in the real estate category since the launch of QuikrHomes about four months ago, it was announced at a news conference here.
"We have been in the investment phase, right now. Ifyou look at our business right now, we are not a profitable company, but the idea is to get profitable in next couple of years," Pranay Chulet, Quikr Founder and CEO, told PTI after the announcement.
"This is not a shift (in) anyways. It is for accelerating to double down the impact we have made in QuikrHomes," he said.
Asked to divulge the terms of transaction, Chuletsaid, "We wouldn't speak about it. We would keep it confidential for now."
Co-founder and CEO of CommonFloor.Com Sumit Jain said the merger will help leveraging each other's strengths toprovide more value to the end-users.
"The real strategic reason is that we are doing transaction to create more value, not to remove some of the value that has been created. We are one team now, and we want to work on a common platform," Chulet said.
Moreover, this platform will give more choices to the customer, he added.
Also, the coming together of the twocompanies will transform the way people sell and buy, Chuletsaid.
The merger, which is expected to be completed in the next two to three months, will give CommonFloor.Com access to Quikr's 30 million consumers and harness the potential of the cross category nature of the platform.
QuikrHomes willbenefit from CommonFloor's structured data and domainexpertise, Chulet added.
Asked whether the company plans to raise further capital
for its verticalisation, Chulet said, "Right now, by God's grace we have enough resources irrespective of market sentiments. We don't have any such immediate plans."
On whether the company is looking for more partnerships to cater their expansion plans, he said it is open, provided it adds on value to their consumers.
"We would always be open to acquisitions and partnerships, which bring value to the customers," he added.
Asked whether the merger will force the company to lay off employees, Jain said, on the contrary they are looking for doubling the number of employees and certainly there wouldn't be any layoffs.
"In spite of the merger, we still need lot of people compared to what we have right now ... Certainly there are not going to be any layoffs," he said.
The combined force of two entities will create a strong online real estate industry leader, which has the largest inventory and property seeker traffic in the country, he added.
The company will continue to operate both brands in the market and honor the commitment towards their respective customers.
Further, given that the two companies have the same technology stack, the CommonFloor.Com team will have expanded scope across Quikr's four other verticals in order to further accelerate its growth.
Quikr recently had acquired Indian Realty Exchange (IRX), a mobile-first aggregator of real estate broker community and RealtyCompass, a platform that provides builder rating and project analysis.
It also made a strategic investment in A N Virtual Tech, the only company in India that has detailed real life imagery of 90 per cent plus streets and buildings across India's top 50 cities.
QuikrHomes is one of the key verticals for Quikr as 35 per cent of its revenue comes from it.
CommonFloor has over five lakh active property listings from over 200 cities, and over 1 lakh residential projects listed.
