CommonFloor acquires site Flat.to
A website that helps students and bachelors find accommodation, Flat.to, has been acquired by Real-estate portal CommonFloor. The deal signals growing consolidation in India’s consumer internet industry. The deal was finalised last week and includes both cash and stock components. Sumit Jain, cofounder of CommonFloor declined to share the financial details of the transaction. He mentions that Commonfloor wishes to be comprehensive property website and they had a gap in the students and bachelor segment.
Commonfloor aims to earn revenue of Rs 150 crore in fiscal 2016. The company raised funding of about Rs 64 crore in January. The company has taken a controlling stake in Flat.to but it will continue to operate as an independent website. Flat.to will use the back end resources of Commonfloor such as Human Resources, Finance, etc.
Gaurav Munjal, 23, who was previously a software developer at Directi, an internet domain name registrar company, founded Flat.to. Munjal had faced problems finding a flat for himself, something that led him to start the company.
Flat.to, operates in cities with high student population like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Kota and Jaipur. It earns revenue through subscriptions taken by brokers, only lists flats and accommodation that are open to bachelors. The company recently launched a feature that highlights broker-free listings. The website has about 7,000 listings and intends to quickly expand to cover the 18 cities that CommonFloor already covers.
The other cofounder and angel investor, Aakrit Vaish, is exiting the company in this round. He runs mobile application startup Haptik, was not involved in Flat.to’s daily operations.
Raja Lahiri, a partner at financial advisory firm Grant Thornton India says that the trend of acquiring niche players to fill the gaps in offering of big players is likely to continue.
Source: The Economic Times
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