Acknowledging the crowded online property search space, 99.co chief Darius Cheung said that a key differentiator is technology. While his company – best known for its proprietary map-based search engine – is not looking to offer virtual or augmented reality solutions yet, it is exploring 3D visualisation.
Photo: The Straits Times
Two Singapore-based companies announced this week that they have raised nearly US$20 million (S$28.03 million) in Series A funding, a sign that investors are reverting to making huge bets on early-stage startups.
The first is property search portal 99.co. The Business Times has learnt that the three-year-old startup has secured US$7.9 million in a round led by existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Eduardo Saverin, taking total funding to over US$10 million.
99.co will use the money to expand to two new South-east Asian countries, improve its tech offerings and grow the team.
Today, it operates in Singapore and Indonesia, and has a team of about 60. It has since 2014 amassed some 150,000 residential listings, and is said to have served over 2.5 million users last year.
Acknowledging the crowded online property search space, 99.co chief Darius Cheung said that a key differentiator is technology.
While his company – best known for its proprietary map-based search engine – is not looking to offer virtual or augmented reality solutions yet, it is exploring 3D visualisation.
When asked about long-term plans, Mr Cheung said that 99.co is open to the idea of an initial public offering, which he sees as a financing channel.
“We will go there if there is no more private money (we can tap).”
The serial entrepreneur, whose first venture, mobile security startup tenCube, was acquired by McAfee for reportedly S$25 million in 2010, added: “99.co started monetising in 2016. We are not profitable, and are not going to be in…