Grabhouse.com, community-based online exchange for finding rented accommodation, has raised $2.5 million (Rs 15 crore) in Series A from Kalaari Capital and Sequoia Capital. The investment will be used to create
innovative products and improve the existing technology to enhance the end-user experience and to increase the company’s footprint across major cities in India.
Grabhouse.com offers a broker-free and transparent experience to house hunters seeking rented or shared accommodation. The portal uses a proprietary engine to map the needs and preferences of prospective tenants and house owners that go beyond basic parameters such as budget and location to recommend the best matches.
Pankhuri Srivastava, Co-founder, Grabhouse.com said the investment will help offer a reliable accommodation solution that addresses the needs of both home seekers and owners.
“Currently, a majority of real-estate deals take place offline but there is a marked shift in this with 30% transactions being enabled through internet-based offerings. With an increasing number of users joining the internet bandwagon, we are certain that this transition will happen at a faster pace which gives this segment an optimistic outlook,” she added.
GV Ravishankar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors said that the problem of finding the right rental property or PG still happens to be an arduous task for the seeker and Grabhouse is creating a proprietary matching technology to solve this problem for the consumer.
Founded in July 2013 by Pankhuri Shrivastava and Prateek Shukla, Grabhouse.com received seed fund from India Quotient and MV Krishnan from Deutsche Bank as well as Chetan Bohra and Navin Ranka from RB & Partners. The portal currently offers houses in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and attracts a daily traffic of about 500,000 visitors which is largely driven through referrals and word of mouth.