Oku Tech Raises Capital from LightspeedIndia

Oku Tech's BroEx, India's largest network of real estate brokers, has raised USD 1 million in early-stage financing from Lightspeed India.

The BroEx network is currently in active use by 25,000 brokers across all major metros such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore, as well as other large population centres such as Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. The network has grown through viral word-of-mouth across multiple mobile and social platforms. The company plans to deploy these funds to expand to all Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities in India. Additionally, funds will also be allocated for the next level of product development, including launching complimentary products and services for brokers to facilitate transactions.

The real estate brokerage market in India is currently dominated by 500,000 independent brokers and agencies and generates $4 billion in brokerage fee income for real estate sales and rentals annually. The fragmented nature of the market restricts the ability of industry stakeholders (brokers, builders, customers) to collaborate effectively.

Many existing solutions in the market aim to replace the broker or capture their brokerage fees. Oku Tech believes that brokers will continue to be pivotal for powering complex, high value real estate transactions and the company has chosen to use technology to partner with brokers across India to solve their critical problems.

Through BroEx, brokers tap into a broad network of trusted buy-side and sell-side brokers beyond their personal and professional networks. By connecting and sharing information, including inventory and requirements, with this broker network, brokers are able to access accurate sale and rental listings as well as close deals faster.

Pallav Pandey, founder and CEO of Oku Tech, said: "We are re-imagining the real estate opportunity in India with the broker at the centre of the universe. This round of funding will help us consolidate our position as the preferred network and channel of communication for brokers and also get us ready to power transactions through our platform."

Dev Khare, Managing Director at Lightspeed India, said: "Real estate in India is a deep and relatively untapped opportunity with a number of unsolved problems. We believe that the experienced founding team at Oku Tech, combined with the company's mobile-first network effects model and being the market's largest broker network, is a very solid foundation to disrupt the current status quo in the market."

Source : Equity Bulls

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