Quickr acquires online realty portal CommonFloor

Classifieds portal Quickr on Thursday announced that it has merged CommonFloor.com with its real estate vertical QuikrHomes for an undisclosed amount

Classifieds portal Quickr on Thursday announced that it has merged CommonFloor.com with its real estate vertical QuikrHomes for an undisclosed amount.

Acquisition will allow Quikr easy access to the property and technology listings developed by Commonfloor over the last eight years.

The two sides did not disclose the financial details, but the deal is speculated to be in the region of $120 million (Rs 803 crore). Sources said it was an all-stock deal.

Going by recent acquisitions announced in the Indian start up ecosystem, this is one of the largest deals, which figured among significant ventures such as Ola-TaxiForSure ($200 million), Flipkart-Myntra ($330 million) and Snapdeal-Freecharge ($400 million), and would create an industry leader in online real estate.

The acquisition, which will likely be completed in the next three months, will allow both brands to remain independent from the consumer’s point of view. It will allow Quikr easy access to the property and technology listings developed by Commonfloor over the last eight years.

The combined size of property listings of the two companies comes up to about 2 million, around three-fourths of which belongs to Quikr.

Quikr, which started as a classifieds portal in 2008, has since branched into specialised verticals such as automobiles, real estate, jobs, services and customer-to-customer sales. For the company, which entered the branded online real estate market four months ago, the acquisition of Commonfloor would serve as a shortcut to becoming a dominant player on the field without suffering a substantial cash outflow.

As part of the deal, CommonFloor will get one board berth in Quikr, said Quickr’s founder-CEO Pranay Chulet.

Both Quikr and CommonFloor have a common investor in Tiger Global Management, is speculated to have stitched this deal.