Just by holding a dinner meeting with Mr. Haresh Chalwa, managing partner at India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA) and former Network 18 CEO, Housing.co.in closed on another funding deal less than four weeks after their previous investment. At least according to Mr. Advitiya Sharma, co-founder, housing.co.in, Mr. Haresh was impressed with the team and its product and that’s why he made the funding.
Whether that’s exactly what happened, or some secret relationship between housing.co.in and Mr. Haresh triggered the funding, the company’s success story truly merits anybody’s faith and trust (including Mr. Haresh’s).
The housing portal idea came up in 2012 when Advitiya and 11 friends, all in their early 20-ties, all from IIT – Bombay, set out to look for accommodation in Mumbai. It took 30 frustrating days for each one of them to find an apartment, and this really fueled their urge to find a solution for it. Some people see problems, entrepreneurs always see opportunities. This is how the idea behind housing.co.in was born.
They all decided to drop their newly acquired jobs and start a 3D map-based portal which they hoped would redefine Mumbai’s real estate websites’ landscape. And yes it did. The company is now a behemoth in India boasting more than 700 staff members, operating in 10 of India’s biggest cities, and receiving more than 90,000 new visitors on their website every day. There are even suggestions that Housing.co.in comes third only to 99Acres.com and MagicBricks.com in terms of traffic.
Simply by addressing the problem of lack of authentic information needed by real estate agents and homeowners in buying and selling, the company grew to become the powerhouse it is in a span of fewer than two years. This must have been so compelling to Mr. Haresh!
Housing.co.in is a really special startup not only because of the cool idea behind it but also because of the fact that it was founded by 12 co-founders. Most of the startups have 1-3 founders, but this one has a dozen… This is really cool because this means that their team is cohesive, it’s a well-oiled machine and this is one of the most important things for success in business.
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