These are exciting times for Singapore’s startup ecosystem. Following big exits by sgCarMart and DS3 this week, PropertyGuru has the potential to end up as the country’s biggest post Dot-Com success story.
Speaking on stage at the Startup Asia tech startup conference in Singapore, PropertyGuru CEO Steve Melhuish gave the audience an update of where the company’s at since receiving USD 48M in funding from Europe property group ImmobilienScout24.
Steve revealed that part of the investment from ImmobilienScout24 went back to investors and shareholders, generating 24x returns. About SGD 22M (USD 17M) was plowed into the company prior to this latest round.
Effectively, this would make Steve a millionaire, although he quickly added that two-thirds of his own investments is still in the business, and that the team is still motivated to grow the company.
Candidly, Steve shared that his wife has been spending most of the money on their twin babies, which arrived when Steve was in the midst of closing the USD 48M investment. They’ve also indulged in a new car, which they bought two days ago.
On a more serious note, Steve says that PropertyGuru is now mulling an IPO, and the homework alone is expected to take six to nine months.
Where to IPO is a question Steve wants answered: While Singapore is closer to home, retail investors may not be sophisticated enough since not many tech companies go public in Singapore. Australia, meanwhile, seems like a promising market with a few successful tech companies being traded in the stock exchange.
In the meantime, the team is very much focused on returning to profitability since doing so in 2009. It expects to reach that status in 2013 following losses in 2010 and 2011. In those two years, money was plowed into regional expansion.
Currently, about 70 percent of its revenue is coming from Singapore, and its website lists 24,000 agents, each spending about SGD 600 on listings. PropertyGuru is also making money from subscriptions, advertisements, premium placements, and project marketing from real estate agencies.
Unlike in the past, when PropertyGuru made the mistake of expanding to the region too quickly due to pressure from shareholders and as a result overstretching its staff and resources, the company is taking a more deliberate approach.
It aims to stabilize its operations in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and help these bases reach profitability and self-sufficiency before heading to other markets. Hong Kong, Vietnam, Philippines and India are the markets they are mulling over.
Finally, reminiscing about PropertyGuru’s early years and looking at the startup environment in Singapore today, Steve says that entrepreneurs now are in a much more privileged position.
They’re also a very different breed. Highlighting RedMart as an example, of which Steve is an angel investor, he points out that the team was smart enough to implement processes and systems very early on, which was something PropertyGuru didn’t do.
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