Democratising Proptech
NoBroker, India’s first proptech unicorn, is a disruptive real estate platform that makes it possible to buy/sell/rent a house without paying any brokerage. It is backed by marquee investors like the Tiger Global, General Atlantic, Elevation Capital, Moore Capital Ventures, and Beenext, to name a few. It has a total funding of USD 361 million.
On its unicorn status, Akhil Gupta, Founder, NoBroker has a clear perspective. He says, “Becoming a unicorn is not the end objective for any startup. It is a milestone. Any customer-centric company would know that once they cross this milestone, and that more and better is expected from them.” He adds: “The endeavour doesn’t end there. It is just the beginning.” As per NoBroker’s annual survey, real estate is considered to be one of the safest investments.
Tech Advancements
Gupta says the recent technological advancements have made it a go-to choice for millennials as the average age of buying a property has come down significantly over the past five years. Recalling the early years, Gupta says while NoBroker was a startup that was solving a problem unique to India and a company like this existed nowhere, while raising funds it was initially difficult to convince the investors to put in the money. Why? “Because we did not have a successful model that we could show to gain their trust,” he adds. Today, it’s a different situation all together.
NoBroker has four verticals which are the key revenue streams for it: One, Nobroker application which works on a freemium model where people can either use the platform for free or choose paid plans for assisted renting/buying/selling activity. Two: NoBrokerHood, the society, visitor and payment management app. Then there is the NoBroker Home Services (which includes home-cleaning, home-painting, packers & movers, interiors, home loans, etc.), and the Nobroker Pay (payment gateway which allows to pay rent and maintenance payment via credit card, debit card, UPI, and netbaking).
Future Roadmap
Speaking about the future plans, Gupta says the company’s approach has been to go deeper into existing cities before they go wider into more territories. “Short term goal is to capture more and more customers from the cities we are present in and long term goal is to be present in top 20 cities over the next 2-3 years,” he adds.
Gupta concedes that the real estate sector is a vastly unorganised industry and requires a major facelift. When it entered the business, the digital penetration was not enough. Technology could only benefit the end user if they themselves use it, says Gupta. “We simplified the listing process to such an extent that one could just submit the details on WhatsApp from where our team could pick it up for listing” he shares.
