A strategic consortium of three investors has invested $169 million in south-east Asian portal PropertyGuru, a leading property marketing website in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, and in the second position in Malaysia.
The investment is the largest in the technology sector in southeast Asia this year. The additional capital will be used to fund innovation, marketing and further expansion at PropertyGuru.
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The consortium includes David Bonderman’s TPG Capital, a global private equity giant with $67 billion in assets under management, an Australian private equity group co-founded by Wesfarmers director Paul Bassat, who also co-founded jobs site, Seek. And Indonesia’s largest media group Emtek.
The value of real estate transactions through the platform is estimated to be $S14 billion annually, representing around 10 per cent of all property transactions in the region. Around 10 per cent of real estate advertising revenue in southeast Asia is spent online. In Australia, it is around 50 per cent.
TPG already owns complementary internet and real estate companies in its portfolio, including Uber, Airbnb, Lynda.com, SurveyMonkey, RentPath and 8990 (Philippines), among others.
The transaction is expected to close by mid-June, at which point representatives from the consortium will join PropertyGuru’s board.
“We will capitalise on this investment to tap into the southeast Asia property market potential and developments in the digital space to further our regional agenda, ” said Steve Melhuish, chief executive officer and co-founder of PropertyGuru.
“Square Peg sees tremendous potential for PropertyGuru to continue to innovate and expand on its market leading positions in multiple geographies, ” said Paul Bassat , “This investment underscores Square Peg’s philosophy of building and investing in businesses, which have the capacity to leverage multiple growth levers from positions of strength.”
