Parent Co. Of Housing.com Buys Rental Firm FastFox

Elara Technologies, which owns Housing.com, PropTiger and Makaan, has acquired FastFox.com at a valuation of almost Rs 100 crore ($14,447,317), according to reports.

This moves Elara, which is based in Singapore and backed by SoftBank and News Corp., into the so-called online-to-offline rental ecosystem, with a market size upwards of Rs 20,000 crore ($2,889,400,000).

“Until now, we were in the home rentals market through listings on both our platforms, Housing.com and Makaan.com. With this acquisition, we will now provide end-to-end, on-ground assistance to both landlords and tenants in collaboration with other brokers,” said Elara Technologies CEO Dhruv Agarwala.

There are no immediate plans to change the brand’s name, he said. “For the time being, we will retain the FastFox brand,” Agarwala said, adding that FastFox’s 120 staff members would become part of Elara.

“We intend to use our capital and expertise to expand FastFox’s offering beyond Gurugram to other markets in India,” he added.

FastFox.com CEO Pallav Pandey said the acquisition is good for both companies: “Housing.com’s data, technology and demand generation capabilities combined with the unique on-ground fulfillment capabilities of FastFox.com is the perfect recipe for success in the home rentals market.”

FastFox.com mainly operates in Gurugram and has grown rapidly in the last year, when it captured a 5 percent share of home rentals in the city.

The company introduced the concept of the open house model for rentals, which allowed potential buyers to see a home in person for a specific period of time.

Elara started realty portal PropTiger.com in 2011, followed in 2015 by Makaan.com, a free marketplace for brokers to list properties. In January of 2017, the company acquired Housing.com, a classified platform for brokers and developers. Elara has raised $105 million in equity so far from its investors, and last year it raised $35 million from what it called organic and inorganic growth.