Parent company of Pakistani property portal Zameen gets US$20M
The investment will partially go towards strengthening the company’s technology as well as making acquisitions
Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) — the parent company of Pakistani portal Zameen.com and Bayut.com in the United Arab Emirates — announced today it raised a US$20 million Series C from a fund focussing on frontier and emerging markets.
The name of the investor was undisclosed, but the funding came from a previous investor.
EMPG Co-founder and CEO Imran Ali Khan said the investment will partially go towards strengthening the company’s technology as well as making acquisitions.
“This sizeable funding will be distributed between our operations in Pakistan and UAE, as well as providing significant capital for the group to launch well-funded ventures in Bangladesh and the Middle East,” said Khan in an official statement.
“Before stepping into these new markets, we have made sure to conduct extremely thorough research into all the relevant socio-cultural and economic aspects,” he added.
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The latest round comes five months after EMPG announced it raised a US$9-million Series B in September.
The company says it gets 3.4 million page visits per day and is partnered with 9,000 real estate agencies across 30 cities. It has about 500 employees.
Lahore is the most popular city on the portal, followed by Karachi and Islamabad.
Zameen was founded in 2006 while Bayut, a smaller operation than its sister company, was created in 2007.
EMPG was formely called Zamzama Property Group, which was created by the merger of Zameen.com and Bayut.com.
Besides the co-founding Khan brothers, EMPG has notable figures leading the company — the former Chairman of iProperty Simon Baker, SeLoger.com CEO Roland Tripard and Gilles Blanchard, who is well-known for his property portal experience.
Also Read: Inside Pakistan’s thriving e-commerce scene
An interesting report by Wamda, an organisation similar to e27 but focussed on the Middle East, said Pakistani entrepreneurs are increasing looking to connect products and services with the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region.
Bloomberg classified Pakistan as a ‘frontier ecosystem’, but the country still gets more venture capital investment than its Middle Eastern counterparts.
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