If you describe Housing.com as a woman in dire straits, then its new CEO Jason Kothari, perhaps, is the knight in the shining armour who is expected to rescue the damsel in distress after a year of turmoil which has hurt the Mumbai-based start-up's standing in the online real estate market. Kothari was literally brought in to put the house in order after his maverick predecessor Rahul Yadav's headline hitting ways brought the company to its knees.
Before being sacked, Yadav's infamous run-in with Housing.com investors or his strange decision to gift his entire stake to the company's employees or for that matter he calling the company's investors as 'intellectually incapable' had grabbed the headlines for all the wrong reasons and done enough damage to the already ailing firm. Under his leadership, the firm had secured a $90m funding round led by Japanese telecoms group SoftBank early last year. But in July everything went haywire and Yadav was shown the door due to alleged inappropriate behaviour.
The company lost momentum and Kothari was brought in as chief business officer to steady the ship. By the time he was made the chief executive in November, the Indian property start-up had almost hit rock bottom. Before Kothari assumed charge, Housing.com had already begun to shed staff, and he continued cutting jobs, shutting wasteful projects to reduce cash burn. Costly billboard advertising campaigns too were axed.
Today Kothari is looking to revive the business and retain it as a going concern, and for that he has to raise more money. According to a report in The Economic Times, Housing.com is in talks with e-commerce company Snapdeal and global media giant News Corp for a strategic stake sale to overcome its cash crisis. Japan's SoftBank, which is the largest investor in Housing.com, is looking to bring in strategic partners with an aim to drive the company's future growth. If the talks between the parties go through, the deal may get sealed by the second quarter of 2016, the report added. However, the final contours will depend on the beleaguered company's ability to show growth in its 'buy and sell' business, which allows users to not just find property but engage in a transaction online.
Housing.com competes with PropTiger in which News Corp, the parent of this news website, owns a 30% stake.
