NoBroker has served 1.5 million customers till date, making it the world’s largest C2C real estate platform. As an extension to the Series B funding, NoBroker.com has raised $7 million ( INR 50 crores). This extension round is led by Korean investor KTB Network. Also, they have recently launched their services in Gurgaon as well
Quotes on Budget 2017-18 on behalf of Mr Amit Kumar Agarwal, CEO NoBroker
Mr Amit Kumar Agarwal, CEO - NoBroker says,
"The Budget has brought some welcome news for the start-up ecosystem in the country by increasing the tax exemption period for start-ups from the current 3 years, to 5 years. Taxing early stage starts is a major growth deterrent and the move to increase the tax holiday will boost the ecosystem and facilitate the risk taking capacity of start-ups. However MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) of 18.5% will still be applicable on start-ups in this period. We recommend exempting start-ups from MAT in this duration, as that would ensure a complete tax holiday and financial encouragement"
The NoBroker when, what and why?
The concept of starting a real estate portal without brokers came from personal bad experiences of the founders with brokers. The broker begins with showing the worst and non-moving flats in the given rental range which do not fit the requirement. This results in a complete waste of time and causes great inconvenience as one is unable to find a suitable house quickly. Amit, Akhil and Saurabh decided to challenge this inefficiency and enable the customer.
The idea of NoBroker was conceptualized in late 2013 and the website was launched in March 2014. We witnessed massive growth and high rate of acceptance and adoption from customers, due to a huge latent demand for non-brokerage marketplace. Due to this, in a short span, we have become the world’s largest ‘Peer-to-Peer’ ecosystem in real estate.
At NoBroker we believe that looking for a house should be a happy, convenient and cost-effective experience. And that’s what NoBroker offers – hassle free house hunting. We have solved a complex problem in the most simple and straight forward way. We analysed the entire value chain of house hunting and replaced everything that the broker does with technology. On NoBroker.com you can find smart recommendations based on real-time data – something which an offline broker cannot provide effectively. NoBroker helps the customer in making an informed decision.
How we work?
We work on the backbone of a highly sophisticated technology. Our algorithm is designed to keep the broker out of the system. When a new customer registers on our site, the algorithm works in the background and validates the user.
NoBroker.com has served over 1.5 customers making it the world’s largest C2C real estate platform. NoBroker.com is adding 1 lakh customers on a monthly basis and witnessing 6 lakh customer connections every month which leads to a saving of more than 20 crorers. NoBroker.com recently moved to a freemium subscription-fee based model. There is a huge customer demand and acceptance of a brokerage-free real estate marketplace. Our focus is on building a profitable business by breaking-even next year.
We launched NoBroker to offer all the services that even a good broker cannot offer since technology makes it possible. With NoBroker we want to enable the customer by creating an ecosystem of genuine owners and customers. NoBroker.com gives smart recommendations to the customers based on real-time data and assists the customer in making an informed decision. Customers can also create completely customized rental agreements on the site and get them home delivered. In Mumbai and Pune markets, the current process of getting your agreement registered is very cumbersome. The owner and tenant need to take a day off from work and go to the government office along with a broker to give bio-metric signature. This is not all. You also have to pay a hefty brokerage to the broker who facilitates the process. We have made this process fast, cost effective and convenient. All that the users need to do is, fill in basic information like name of tenant and landlord, permanent address, security deposit etc. along with the UID (Aadhaar No.). Next you book an appointment for registration and we come to your preferred address to take your bio-metric signature. And that’s all, your rental agreement is home delivered within 3 working days.
Where did the money come from?
The total funding raised by NoBroker.com so far is $13 million. NoBroker.com had raised $10 million Series B funding in February this year. Also recently in September this year Anand Chandrasekaran also invested in NoBroker.com. In February last year we has raised Series-A funding of $ 3 million from SAIF Partners and Fulcrum Ventures. The initial investment was spent on setting up operations. Now our main investment focus is on expanding operations to new markets, and innovative marketing initiatives for new customer acquisition. We are also focusing on hiring the right kind of talent to strengthen our technology team.
All about the Mobile App & Click & Earn-
We have a mobile app which allows our customers surf the site, while on the go. This is very beneficial for our customers since 50% of them access us through mobile. One very innovative feature that we have introduced is ‘Click & Earn’. This feature helps us in ‘crowdsourcing’ of owner listings. This has never been done anywhere before by any online player anywhere in the world. All one has to do in the ‘click n earn' feature is click the photo of a ' To-Let' board, send us through app and get cash awards for every successful listing. A user can earn 100/- per verified listing with no upper limit on number of listings. We are getting humongous response from our customers for this feature. Every day, we are getting 200 direct owner properties on our website due to this. With Crowdsourcing feature of ' Click & Earn', we have enabled everyone in the city to be a broker- buster.
Customer traction- more the merrier
Customers have been paying brokerage year on year without seeing much advantage of the broker. All existing players are working with the broker. No one was willing to offer a solution which eliminated the broker. The concept of NoBroker is disruptive for the entire industry. No one believed that the real estate space can work without brokers. But we have successfully democratized real estate with the help of technology. We are currently helping our customers save more than 20 crores of brokerage every month across 4 cities. Since our inception, we have grown 20 times across all key dimensions: website visitors, registered users and new property listings.
Our Unrelenting Spirit
The NoBroker office in Bangalore had come under attack in September last year. Around 40-50 brokers gathered and tried to take forced entry in the office premises with the intent of damaging property, battering employees and disrupting work. When the founders and some employees tried to stop them, the brokers resorted to verbal and physical assault. However, the formidable team at NoBroker will continued the disruption via technology and helped customers save brokerage.
Our Future Plans-
We want to constantly add value & make life simple for customers with the help of technology. We want to maximize our reach and hope to be present in top cities in the country. Going forward, we will keep on evaluating the entire value chain of real estate transactions and keep offering smart technology led solutions. Our endeavour will always remain to enable the customer with our technology.
Innovation and customer convenience first, only on NoBroker.com!
Amit Kumar Agarwal is the Co-Founder & CEO of NoBroker.com. Amit founded NoBroker.com to revolutionize house hunting not just by eliminating brokerage but by making it convenient and hassle-free with the use of cutting edge technology and innovation.
He looks after overall vision and direction for the company. Out of 13 years of his total work experience, he spent 8 years in management consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in their Banking and Financial services vertical. In this period, he consulted top Indian and foreign banks for formulating their business strategy (entry & portfolio strategy) and enhanced their on-ground profitability (through large-scale pan-India implementation, impacting hundreds of branches). He led consulting teams, worked directly with CXOs , and won many accolades. This led him to head the strategy function in ANZ Bank reporting to India CEO. Here, he formulated India strategy and was instrumental in getting the bank, the very coveted two additional India branch licenses from RBI. Having won badminton championship in school, his passion is to play squash.
Amit is an alumnus from IIT-Kanpur and IIM- Ahmedabad.