US-based News Corp and its Australian group firm REA have made fresh investment of around USD 70 million (Rs 500 crore) in Elara Technologies that owns realty portals PropTiger, Makaan and Housing.com, sources said.
Singapore-based Elara Technologies, which is also backed by investors such as SoftBank, Accel and SAIF Partners, would use this fund to expand its business in India.
According to sources, Rupert Murdoch-led News Corp and group firm REA have further invested about USD 70 million in Elara Technologies.
The capital infusion is in the form of a convertible note that covers the USD 35 million raised by Elara as debt from Citi Singapore in August last year, they added.
With this fresh funding, Elara has raised USD 175 million so far from investors.
An e-mail sent to Elara Technologies on the matter remained unanswered.
Elara Technologies, a digital real estate marketing and transactions services firm, has been founded by Dhruv Agarwala. He is group CEO of all the three portals -- Housing, PropTiger and Makaan.
Elara is currently growing at a rate of more than 50 per cent year-on-year.
It first set up PropTiger.com in 2011 and then acquired Makaan.com in May 2015.
In a major consolidation in the Indian online real estate business, Elara acquired Housing.com in January 2017, a start-up founded in 2012 by around a dozen IIT graduates.
Following the acquisition of Housing.com, the company completed a restructuring exercise to ensure optimal utilisation of resources.
While PropTiger helps developers in selling flats available in the primary market, Makaan.com largely deals in buy-sell of re-sale properties.
Housing.com is a classified platform for developers, brokers and home-owners.
In January 2017, REA had invested USD 50 million and an affiliate of SoftBank Group Corp USD 5 million in Elara Technologies.
Elara has 23 offices across India and 1,800 employees.
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