Singapore, 7th June 2012 – PropertyGuru, Asia’s leading property portal group, today announced that it has secured a double digit million Singapore dollar strategic investment from ImmobilienScout24, Europe’s top property portal group and a subsidiary of global company Deutsche Telekom. This is one of the biggest online deals in Asia this year, and re-enforces the rapidly emerging online media opportunity in South East Asia.
The investment will further strengthen PropertyGuru's leading market position and support the Company’s continued innovation focus, developing services to help its clients find and advertise properties, as well as support further expansion within the region. It will also give PropertyGuru access to additional talent and expert resources, with both parties working closely together to share ideas, best practices and develop new services.
Both companies share similar successes in their home countries and a vision for growth.
PropertyGuru is Asia’s leading property portal group with a presence in 9 countries, directly and indirectly via partners. The Company's websites are used by 8.2 million buyers, viewing over 65 million property pages and generating over 200,000 sales enquiries for advertisers - every month. In Singapore, the Company's PropertyGuru and CommercialGuru websites account for 85% of all total page views from property seekers using property portal websites (source: Google AdPlanner), and over double the number of user views as compared to all other competitor’s property portal traffic. PropertyGuru currently employs 240 "Gurus" across 6 offices in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Company recently reported double revenue and traffic growth over the previous year.
ImmobilienScout24 is Germany’s biggest real estate marketplace, attracting more than 7.5 million users per month (unique visitors; source Comscore Media Metrix). Over 260 million virtual real estate tours are taken on this portal, and more than 1.5 million different properties are offered - every month at ImmobilienScout24. The company is based in Berlin and employs over 500 people. ImmobilienScout24 is part of the Scout24 Group, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, a S$94 billion turnover company with 236,000 employees in over 50 countries.
"The Asian region is a dynamic growth market and therefore of significant strategic importance to Scout24 Group. We are pleased to have found a partner in PropertyGuru Group with a strong super-regional position. Together, we will be able to develop the Asian market," said Dr. Martin Enderle, CEO at Scout24 Group. Scout24 Group's international alignment supports the implementation of Deutsche Telekom's corporate strategy by further extending its portfolio in the fast-growing Internet business.
"We see strong economic growth, rising middle classes, urbanisation, developing property markets, as well as an online explosion, taking place throughout Asia. PropertyGuru sits in middle of all of this. Our revenues and traffic doubled over the previous year, and we increased our leadership position in our markets. We welcome ImmobilienScout24 as a strategic investor, which will accelerate our growth and supported additional investment in developing innovative services for our clients," stated Steve Melhuish, CEO and co-founder of PropertyGuru Group.
"This shareholding is part of our internationalization strategy to invest early on in emerging countries with strong growth and to establish the use of the Internet as a central and most effective instrument for seeking and marketing real estate. We have built up Germany's leading real estate marketplace and we are pleased to contribute this know-how to our cooperation with PropertyGuru," emphasised Marc Stilke, CEO at ImmobilienScout24.
Asia's population is expected to grow 70% over the following 20 years (source: Fraunhofer Institute). In addition, ongoing economic development, rising middles classes and declining household sizes is expected to drive urbanisation and rapidly growing property markets across Asia. An increasing number of real estate and new home developments especially in urban areas, are marketed on the internet1. This investment will therefore allow PropertyGuru Group to reach out to a combined population of roughly 340 million people and S$900 million annual real estate advertising market (source: Nielsen and PropertyGuru), which is rapidly moving online.
---------- END ----------
Media Contact:
Florence Fang
Flame Communications (PR Agency)
Tel: +65 6259 3193
Email: florence@flamecomms.com
Winnie Khoo
Chief Operating Officer
Tel: +65 6238 5971
Email: winnie@propertyguru.com.sg
About ImmobilienScout24:
ImmobilienScout24 is Germany’s biggest real estate marketplace. Attracting more than 7.5 million users per month (unique visitors; source comScore Media Metrix), the website is by far the most frequented real estate portal on the German-speaking Internet. Over 260 million virtual real estate tours are taken on this portal every month.
More than 1.5 million different properties are offered every month at ImmobilienScout24. The company is based in Berlin and employs over 500 people. ImmobilienScout24 is part of the Scout24 Group. Alongside ImmobilienScout24, the Scout24 Group comprises AutoScout24, ElectronicScout24, FinanceScout24, FriendScout24, JobScout24 and TravelScout24. Scout24 is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. More information at www.immobilienscout24.de.
About PropertyGuru:
PropertyGuru was founded in 2006 as a self-funded company, with a vision to make the property search process a breeze for buyers, sellers and investors. Taking advantage of Asia’s growing affluence for property and the online boom, it received its first VC investment funding in 2008. Since then, the company has grown rapidly, reaping profits and positive cashflow in 2009 and doubling revenue growth in 2011.
PropertyGuru is now Asia’s leading online property portal group, with a presence in nine countries, including offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and partnerships with leading property websites in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam and China. It has 8.2 million buyers viewing 65 million property pages monthly, over 200,000 mobile applications downloaded and a growing database of over 400,000 opted-in buyers.
PropertyGuru provides an integrated media platform that real estate developers and agencies can use to promote their brands and generate sales leads. The entire PropertyGuru community boasts 400,000 residential and commercial properties and clients include almost 200 prominent developers from Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as over 20,743 real estate agents in Asia.
PropertyGuru has won multiple awards:
OPP Awards For Excellence 2011 (Gold) “Best Media Brand”
Singapore IT Federation (SITF) Merit Award for “Mobile Application” 2011
OPP Awards For Excellence 2011 (Silver) “Best Online Service”
Singapore IT Federation (SITF) award for “Best E-Enterprise Company 2010”
Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award 2011
Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (SVCA) award for “Best Performing VC Backed Company 2010”
Marketing Magazine Digital Media of the Year 2011, Singapore Property Category
Marketing Magazine’s “Top Digital Media of the Year 2010” Award
South East Asian SME Tiger Awards 2011 Gold Award – Online Business
CNBC World's “Best Property Portal Award 2009" Award
Hitwise “No.1 Website in the Property Industry” award 2011”
Google Zeitgeist Singapore 9th Fastest Rising Search Term 2009 Award
Asia’s Leading Property Portal Group includes:
www.PropertyGuru.com.sg is used by over 4.6 million consumers viewing 42.8 million pages, generating over 250,000 leads for advertisers every month. PropertyGuru.com.sg is the 2nd largest domestic website in Singapore. It provides real-time access to multimedia-rich content covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and the largest online property database in Singapore.
www.CommercialGuru.com.sg was launched in August 2010 and is used by 200,000 business users browsing 2.4 million pages and generating over 50,000 leads for advertisers every month. It is Singapore’s only independent, dedicated commercial and industrial property portal and is the 2nd largest property website in Singapore, behind PropertyGuru.com.sg.
www.LoanGuru.com.sg was launched in January 2010 as an independent online mortgage brokerage, providing real-time access to over 300 mortgage packages from 23 major local and international banks. It generates over 500 loan leads per month.
www.PropertyGuru.com.my is the fastest growing Malaysian property portal set up as part of a joint venture between PropertyGuru Group and Malaysia's RedBerry. PropertyGuru has over 800,000 visitors viewing more than 4 million pages monthly. With over 110,000 listings and 3,500 agents signed up, PropertyGuru gives consumers the platform to find properties for purchase, sale, rental or investment and a direct channel to search for and contact agents. An SME Tiger Award Winner for Online Business (Gold Award), PropertyGuru is designed with the end-user in mind; featuring real-time access to multimedia-rich content, covering property-related products, services, news, advice, guides, tools and a rapidly growing online property database in Malaysia.
www.Rumah.com was founded in 2007 and is Indonesia's top property website, with over 1.2 million visitors viewing over 8 million pages every month. The website lists over 120,000 properties for sale and rent in Indonesia and has a database of 11,000 opted-in members. Rumah.com is an online media campaign that provides the ideal search experience for all types of property: residential, commercial and industrial. It allows sellers and renters to place on its site property advertisements which can be easily viewed by prospective buyers, who can search for property based on location and / or price.
www.DDProperty.com was established in 2007 to help Thai consumers find their desired properties for sale and rent in the fastest and most efficient way. There are over 1.3 million visitors viewing more than 8 million pages every month, making it one of Thailand’s top property portals. DDProperty.com allows users to search for residential and commercial properties and constantly finds new ways to improve its navigation and search capabilities to allow consumers to find their dream property quickly.
For recent news, please visit www.propertyguru.com.sg/customer-service/press-releases.