Housing.com acquires Realty Business Intelligence for Rs10 crore

June 12, 2015

Consumer

Press

Real estate listing website Housing.com on Thursday said it has bought risk assessment company Realty Business Intelligence (BI) for ₹ 10 crore in cash.

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Realty BI is Housing’s second acquisition this year, following that of Indian Real Estate Forum (IREF). Housing, which raised $90 million funding from Japan’s SoftBank Group last December, is present in more than 100 cities in India.

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“With this acquisition, Housing.com customers will now be empowered with credible real estate market intelligence and risk assessment to aid informed decision-making for investments in new projects," Housing said in a statement. “Backed by this acquisition, Housing.com will further augment its due diligence efforts to ensure verified listings, risk-free transactions and secure investments, while giving Realty BI access to a vast database of realty developers and end consumers."

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Realty BI has been working with non-banking financial companies to provide a unified collateral risk assessment platform, assuring a 50% cut in costs and back-end work related to due diligence.

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“I have often heard of disturbing instances where a developer having permission to construct a building up to the 16th floor was selling inventory on 17th or 18th floor to consumers," Housing chief executive officer Rahul Yadav said. “Through our acquisition of Realty BI, Housing.com strengthens its technology platform and consumer promise to deliver a powerful collateral risk management platform addressing the entire due diligence lifecycle to validate new projects."

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Housing is one of the several online real estate portals besides Common Floor, No Broker and Magic Bricks, all fighting for dominance of a large but fragmented market.

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Housing has been in the news over the past three months primarily because of a boardroom battle between Yadav and investors such as Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

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Yadav resigned in May, only to withdraw it after reaching an uneasy truce with investors.

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