Excl: Housing.com claims Rs 50Cr GMV from booking of select projects of Tata Value Homes

Last month, real-estate listing portal Housing.com, run by Mumbai-based Locon Solutions Pvt Ltd, had added an augmented reality feature to its homes booking feature- starting with a few projects of Tata Value Homes. Named Slice View, it is basically a 3D rendering of the entire project that allows users to view the floor plan and check the views from inside the house, besides the details of the amenities inside the flat & the society.

The company has already clocked (within five days of its launch) Rs 50 crore worth of gross merchandise value (GMV) from booking of select projects of Tata Value Homes, revealed its co-founder Advitiya Sharma at the Techcircle startup 2014 event.

"We give enough information to users to help them take a buying decision. Our technology brings the full home search experience online— from beginning to the booking," Sharma added.

Housing was set up in 2012 by a dozen IITians, of whom three have already quit the firm. The portal enables real estate brokers to upload unlimited listings on the site while users can search properties for free. The company currently has 30 IIT graduates on board.

Lately, the firm has been expanding its bouquet of services to new segments. Besides a loan application feature, it has recently also added a feature to it platform that enables users to create and customise their rental agreements online.

The firm recently added 12 more cities to its platform, including Ahmedabad, Indore, Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Visakhapatnam, Nashik, Vadodara, Mangalore, Trivandarum, Surat, Mohali and Vijayawada to take the total city count to 25. The company claims to have mapped over 80,000 houses in Mumbai, and over 50,000 houses in Bangalore to date.

Yesterday, the firm announced that it has secured $90 million in fresh funding, led by Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank Corp., with participation from New York-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital and existing investors.

About four months ago, Housing had raised $19 million in funding from Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures. Previously, it had raised $2.5 million in its pre-Series A funding from Nexus. Earlier, it had attracted two rounds of angel funding.

Tata Value Homes had earlier also partnered with Snapdeal.com to tap into its reach for booking flats. At the time, the company had claimed to have sold around 85 units within five days of its launch on the home grown e-commerce marketplace. The developer had also announced that it has been able to sell 45 per cent of its inventory online.