SoftBank may lead fresh $100m funding round for Housing.com

SoftBank may lead fresh $100m funding round for Housing.com





Housing.com, one of the hottest startups to have come out of the IIT-Bombay campus, is close to raising $100 million in a fresh financing round led by Japan's SoftBank, people familiar with the matter told TOI. Existing investors -including New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners, among others -may also participate in the new round, which would give Housing a leg-up over its competitors. SoftBank has held talks with several Indian startups as it intends to put billions of dollars behind internet companies in the country, a sector which is seeing heightened investor interest over the past year. Last month, SoftBank's founder and chairman Masayoshi Son, on his India visit, had told this newspaper that India is growing very quickly and, with the government's digital vision in place, they will find multiple opportunities for SoftBank to make in vestments in.
When contacted by TOI, Advitiya Sharma, co-founder, Housing, declined to comment, while SoftBank could not be re ached immediately for a comment. In October, the Mumbaibased realty portal had gotten on onboard Falcon Edge, Nirvana Venture Advisors, run by Amit Patni of the Patni family , and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner in his personal capacity , as reported first by TOI in its October 21 edition.
Housing, started by 12 IITBombay graduates, is a mapbased real estate portal that helps people rent, sell and buy houses. Seen as a disruptive house-hunting website because of its technology backbone and heavy focus on data and analytics, Housing competes with the likes of 99acres, Magicbricks, part of the Times Group which publishes this paper, and new-age startups like Bangalore-based Commonfloor.
SoftBank, Tiger may invest in Urban Ladder
Mumbai: Japan's SoftBank and Wall Street investor Tiger Global have held talks to pump in around $50-80 million in furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder which recently got a small investment from Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus, Tata Sons. Formal term sheets, a non-binding agreement between the company and the investors, however, have yet to come in, at least two people familiar with the deal told TOI.They did not want to be quoted as the fund-raise process is still ongoing. When contacted, Ashish Goel, co-founder, Urban Ladder, said he had no comments to offer on the development. Sources said Urban Ladder may be valued at around $200 million. SoftBank and Tiger Global could not be reached immediately for comments. Tata's investment in Urban Ladder, which was announced last week, came just four months after the Bangalore-based startup had raised $21 million.