The real estate industry on the internet has always been booming. Its popularity has only increased since it entered the Indian market and is expected to do so in the future. In the online real estate space, a lot of new companies are constantly popping up, but CommonFloor has been there from the beginning.
Established in a modest garage by Vikas Malpani, Sumit Jain, and Lalit Mangal in 2007, CommonFloor has managed to grow and become wildly prosperous.One of the largest online real estate portals in India, CommonFloor has helped thousands of people locate their ideal property. Its goal is to digitalize the real estate market and it has grown to over 120 cities.
How CommonFloor started
It all began when they arrived in Bangalore in 2007 and were unable to locate the ideal apartment. After they found a solution that satisfied them, a number of new issues surfaced, all of which were sparked by the process of moving into a new home. In this instance, the society’s sewage problem was not being resolved since its members lacked mutual acquaintance or any kind of coordination to come to a consensus.
Finding a new home and real estate were major issues for the majority of people back then. Due to these issues, Sumit Jain, Lalit Mangal, and Vikas Malpani set out to discover a solution, leading to the creation of CommonFloor.Want to learn a necessary skill so you may start your own business? Become completely knowledgeable about all the technical aspects. View Verzeo’s certification programs and internships right now!
Funds raised
CommonFloor’s rapid ascent over a brief period of time has been facilitated by funding from numerous projects. In 2009, Accel Partners provided the initial capital, which Tiger Global Management subsequently provided.
Series C fundraising total raised by CommonFloor in 2013 was $7.5 million. Funding for the D and E series brought in $10.5 and $30 million, respectively. In 2015, it also succeeded in obtaining $10 million in Series F funding from Google Capital.
CommonFloor’s acquisition by Quikr
The three co-founders of the real estate web CommonFloor have left the company, one year after Quikr, an online listings company, paid $200 million to acquire it. CommonFloor, which was founded in 2007 by Sumit Jain, Vikas Malpani, and Lalit Mangal, has seen several staff layoffs in the last 12 months. It’s unclear if the three co-founders are exploring a new business possibility together or are going to start their own firms.
In an email to ET, Quikr stated, “CommonFloor has been a great addition to our real estate portfolio.” “The CommonFloor founding team is moving on to their next project and we wish them the best of luck on their future adventure, following a planned time of transition. We’ll keep making investments in and expanding CommonFloor, Grabhouse, and QuikrHomes as top brands in the Indian online real estate market.
CommonFloor continues as a stand-alone brand under QuikrHomes following the acquisition. Just a small number of CommonFloor’s 1,000 workers from the time of the acquisition are still employed by the business.Quikr closed its CommonFloor office in Bengaluru as well in order to streamline operations. In response to questions from ET, the three CommonFloor co-founders stated in a statement, “We are looking at transitioning out to pursue other interests.”
In order to enter the managed property rental market, Quikr Homes, the listings website’s real estate vertical, also purchased Grabhouse, which was financed by Sequoia, in November. Following the all-stock merger of News Corp-backed PropTiger and SoftBank-backed Housing-.com in January 2017, the real estate market saw a sharp consolidation.
Contributing to the society
In order to improve the quality of life surrounding homes, CommonFloor created an offline discussion forum called “RightStep” for communities in January 2013. Experts from a variety of fields are invited to participate in the forum. The forum’s first chapter was held in Bangalore and brought together civic, legal, and government representatives to address concerns raised by apartment dwellers including sewage treatment, solid waste management, and the creation and administration of apartment associations.
In order to educate locals about the “five elements” of nature, cell tower radiation, waste management, and air and water pollution, the second part was held in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune.
Following the devastating floods that ravaged Uttarakhand in June 2013, Commonfloor launched the “Finding Hope a New Home” program, which aims to give the state’s citizens permanent housing as well as financial support for the construction or reconstruction of dwellings. The idea was to appeal for financial donations from the nation’s user base, which consists of over 60,000 communities and over 4 million monthly users, to be used toward the reconstruction or construction of new dwellings in the most severely impacted areas of the State.
This concludes the startup stories chapter for now. If you appreciate reading about startups, then have a look at other startup tales from Verzeo.Take a look at Verzeo’s certification classes if you want to learn a new skill.
No products in the cart.