{"id":1198,"date":"2016-01-12T00:58:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T17:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=1198"},"modified":"2016-01-11T22:25:24","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T15:25:24","slug":"dubais-propertyfinder-nets-20-million-from-sale-of-10-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/dubais-propertyfinder-nets-20-million-from-sale-of-10-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai’s Propertyfinder nets $20 million from sale of 10% stake"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\nDubai-based property portal Propertyfinder Group has sold a ten per cent stake in its business to Sweden-listed investment firm Vostok New Ventures for US$20 million.The deal, which gives Propertyfinder a $200m valuation, will allow the company to improve its portal to make searching easier and to develop a CRM system which it will distribute to its property brokerage and developer clients, according to the company\u2019s founder and chief executive, Michael Lahyani.
\n\u201cTechnology is at the heart of what we do. We are going to continue developing our own proprietary technology.\u201d said Mr Lahyani. He added that funding would also go towards recruiting staff and on marketing its brand within the seven countries where it currently has property portals.The $20m investment is the second round of funding that Propertyfinder has received following an earlier investment from Dubai-based Beco Capital three years ago.
\n\u201cThe first round was from a local VC and this is the first big round coming from an external investor into the region,\u201d Mr Lahyani said.Propertyfinder was founded 10 years ago and now has more than 150 staff. It has portals listing properties in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco and claims one million visitors to its site each month. It has more than 100,000 listings in the UAE, which remains its biggest market.
\nIn a statement to the Swedish stockmarket, Vostok New Ventures said Propertyfinder is \u201cprofitable in its core markets\u201d.Vostok New Ventures is a fund that was initially set up to invest in businesses in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s. However, it has since become something of a technology specialist and holds stakes in two large online firms \u2014 Russian classified listings site Avito and French ridesharing site BlaBlaCar.
\nIts managing director, Per Brilloth, said: \u201cWe have spent a lot of time mapping out our preferred niche of online marketplaces and classifieds operators in the region and are happy to partner up with Michael and his team at Propertyfinder.\u201dMr Lahyani said that he had not been looking for funding when he first met Vostok New Ventures a year ago, but he was interested in tapping into its experience in the online classified sector.
\nHowever, he added that he believed it was now \u201cthe right time\u201d for it to bring in funds to achieve its goal of becoming the biggest online real estate brand in the MENA region. He said that it was not currently looking at geographical expansion, but would instead focus on growing its share of existing markets.\u201cIf you look at the markets where we operate it covers massive populations already.\u201dThe deal is the second major venture capital investment in a UAE property portal in recent months, following the sale of a minority stake in Justproperty\u2019s parent firm JRD Group in August 2015 to investor iMENA Group.
\nKhaldoon Tabaza, the chairman of iMENA Group, has said that it plans to make Justproperty \u201cthe cornerstone\u201d of a regional real estate classified business into which it plans to invest $25m in two years.mfahy@thenational.aeFollow The National\u2019s Business section on Twitter
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Dubai\u2019s Propertyfinder nets million from sale of 10% stake<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dubai-based property portal Propertyfinder Group has sold a ten per cent stake in its...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-jk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17818,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/propertyfinders-moroccan-arm-snaps-up-rival-firm-selektimmo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1198,"position":0},"title":"Propertyfinder's Moroccan arm snaps up rival firm Selektimmo","date":"June 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The Moroccan unit of Dubai-based listings site Propertyfinder Group has bought a competitor for an undisclosed sum.The acquisition of the business known as Selektimmo will give the combined entity more than 1.5 million page views per month with over 50,000 property listings.Michael Lahyani, the founder and chief executive of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74796,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/vat-to-have-minimal-impact-on-rents-says-propertyfinder\/","url_meta":{"origin":1198,"position":1},"title":"VAT to have minimal impact on rents, says Propertyfinder","date":"December 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Propertyfinder Group says there is still confusion about residential and commercial building VAT exemptions\r \r Source : arabianbusiness.com\r Read more...VAT to have minimal impact on rents, says Propertyfinder","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19992,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uae-residents-prefer-to-rent-than-buy-homes-turned-off-by-high-prices-propertyfinder-survey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1198,"position":2},"title":"UAE residents prefer to rent than buy homes, turned off by high prices – Propertyfinder survey","date":"July 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r High house prices and deposit requirements mean that more than two thirds of people living in the UAE rent their homes rather than buy them according to new survey.According to a poll of around 11,000 UAE residents carried out by property website Propertyfinder, 70 per cent said of respondents\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13088,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uae-residents-go-house-hunting-buyer-interest-at-two-year-high-says-propertyfinder-ae\/","url_meta":{"origin":1198,"position":3},"title":"UAE residents go house hunting: Buyer interest at two-year high, says propertyfinder.ae","date":"May 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Property portal propertyfinder.ae has said that buyer interest in new homes in the UAE is running at its highest level in two years, having increased by 28 per cent since January.The company said that property prices had fallen by 20-40 per cent in most parts of the country over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74492,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uae-rental-yields-remain-strong\/","url_meta":{"origin":1198,"position":4},"title":"UAE rental yields remain strong","date":"December 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Propertyfinder statistics show that yields per annum were as high as 9.6 percent in Ajman\r \r Source : arabianbusiness.com\r Read more...UAE rental yields remain strong","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55733,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/ramadan-unlikely-to-dent-demand-for-dubai-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1198,"position":5},"title":"Ramadan unlikely to dent demand for Dubai real estate","date":"May 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Current prices and rents will prove \u2018too tempting\u2019 to resist, feels Propertyfinder Group\r \r Source : arabianbusiness.com\r Read more...Ramadan unlikely to dent demand for Dubai real estate","rel":"","context":"In "Property 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