Coffee Chat: Gunning for IPO – The PropertyGuru Story

We’ve written a lot on the PropertyGuru story, and last year it has also raised US$47 million last year. Our very own Willis Wee, takes to the stage to interview Steve Melhuish, CEO and co-founder of PropertyGuru on its story, and its route to IPO.

#10:23: We have Steve Melhuish, CEO and co-founder of PropertyGuru on stage.

#10:25: Steve: I am originally from UK and arrived in Singapore in 2005. He was involved in a couple of startups prior. There was a void in property portals in Singapore, and he saw the opportunity in that.

#10:27: Steve: Back then, the competitors in the property site market. Most were listed on the newspapers, and Singapore Press Holding related sites such as ST701.com and MediaCorp’s Mocca.com. We had three competitors into the first few months of operation, and the other co-founders and I didn’t take salary for the first three years.

#10:28: Steve: The reason why we were successful was because we were very focused.

#10:30: Steve: The biggest challenge was that 99.9 percent of most estate agents were on newspaper. They spoke of a different language compared to Steve, and Steve was speaking in a foreign accent, making communication difficult. Also, Steve was introducing a new concept of the Internet, while the current existing solution was the traditional media and agents have been using it for a long time.

#10:31: Steve: Today, we have 24,000 agents on PropertyGuru site.

#10:33: Steve: PropertyGuru Group was profitable 2009 – 2010. 2011 to 2012 was not. Singapore was very profitable. In 2011 we went from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. We have been taking the money from Singapore, 70 percent of the revenue, to invest in other markets.

#10:34: Steve: The organization in 2010 was very much focused on Singapore – from marketing to editorial. In 2011, we almost stretched the company and our people to breaking point. We stretched people to the max, and we were too ambitious. That was one mistake we made.

#10:36: Willis: How would you do differently then, since you’re running against time for the acquisitions?

#10:37: Steve: You can still buy the companies, but not completely change the platform. I will look at a step-by-step approach, rather than expanding into multiple markets immediately.

#10:37: Steve: We have raised S$22 million, and last year we raised S$60 million last year. One thirds was cashed out to shareholders.

#10:42: Steve: We still have substantial amount of money in the bank. We continue to hire. We have around 300 people across 4 countries. We will still be hiring 60 – 70 people this year.

#10:43: Second is emphasis on products. We will be focusing on mobile. Property and the idea location-based gels very nicely. Countries like Indonesia, we see traffic picking up very nicely, but monetization was slow.