Elara Technologies, which owns and operates online real estate websites PropTiger, Housing and Makaan, has raised $35 million as debt from Citi Singapore. The freshly secured funding will be used to invest in new products, technology and expansion. Elara claims that it is growing at a rate of over 50% year-on-year. It says that the newly secured funding will help it to grow its business, expand geographically and add to its sales team. The Singapore based company will hire 150 employees to its sales team, taking the total sales headcount to 1,500, CEO Dhruv Agarwala said. Elara Technologies founded PropTiger.com in 2011 and acquired Makaan.com in May 2015. Following that, it acquired Housing.com in January 2017. While PropTiger helps developers in selling flats available in the primary market, Makaan.com largely deals in buying and selling of resale properties. Housing.com is a classifieds platform for developers, brokers and home-owners. The Singapore based company, which has previously raised $105 million from investors as equity, is backed by News Corp and its Australia-based subsidiary firm REA as well as SAIF Partners, Softbank and Accel Partners. In India, it competes with 99acres.com and Magicbricks.com in the real estate classifieds business.
