TPG, KKR invest $220m in Singapore’s PropertyGuru
Singapore-based real estate portal PropertyGuru has confirmed S$300 million ($220 million) in new commitments from existing backers TPG Capital and KKR.
KKR is investing via its third Asian private equity fund, which closed in 2017 at $9.3 billion. That fund contributed S$200 million to a Series D round in 2018. TPG first invested in 2015, joining a $129 million round alongside Australia's Square Peg Capital, and Indonesian media company Emtek Group.
PropertyGuru is considered a category leader in Southeast Asia with a valuation in excess of $800 million despite an aborted IPO attempt in Australia last year. The company serves 24.5 million users a month Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam via separate, locally-focused portals. It claims to have a 57% market share in the region, 4x its nearest competitor, with revenue growing at 24% a year.
PropertyGuru first set up operations in Singapore in 2007 with seed funding from Vulpes Investment Management, which claims it has generated a 70x return on its investment. Scaling success in the meantime has been attributed to data-driven organic growth and strategic M&A activity such as the acquisition of Vietnamese rival Batdongsan in 2018. The company plans to use the new capital to double down on Malaysia and Vietnam.
Recent expansions include the launch of a mortgage marketplace in Singapore and improvements in the technology offering for real estate agents and developers. Among its new products is a service that allows 360-degree immersive walkthroughs of properties and their surrounding cityscapes in real-time. This is said to let developers start marketing projects much earlier than usual, even before constructing a sales gallery or showing an apartment.
“This year, amidst the changing business realities, the demonstrable strength of our platforms has solidified our relative market leadership and provides new opportunities to accelerate both organic and inorganic growth with new investments,” Olivier Lim, chairman of PropertyGuru, said in a statement. “This increased support from TPG and KKR to accelerate growth is a great validation of the group’s successful performance, its leadership team and their strategy to unlock the opportunities that will achieve the group’s ambitions in the region.”
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