MUMBAI: Gurgaon-based real estate advisory firm Square Yards is planning to hire 500 people in the next one year to add to its current employee base of 950 people in 21 cities and six countries, a move that comes at a time when some of the online startups in the sector have started laying off their employees.
“We are looking to expand our team across functions such as sales, technology and channel development,” Tanuj Shori, founder and CEO of Square Yards told ET. “Some of these positions will be based in our new upcoming international offices in Australia and Canada. We are looking at people with experience in insurance and fast moving consumer goods sectors,” he said.
The company, which has developed a technology-enabled transaction platform for primary real estate, reported over 87% growth in revenue for the first half of this fiscal compared to the preceding six months despite the overall sluggishness in the real estate market. “We are hoping to close this financial year with total revenue of $15 million (about Rs 99 crore),” said Shori.
He attributed the company’s robust revenue growth mainly to NRI markets and its new vertical for channel sales – Square Connect. The company aggregates the demand from small brokers and help all in the channel earn more commission from the developers through higher volume based slabs.
According to Shori, the Square Connect programme is witnessing an early success, with over 100 transactions completed during the first month of its launch. So far over 15,000 real estate brokers across 12 different cities have signed up for the Square Connect programme and the company is targeting to reach 100,000 brokers by the end of current financial year.
While other real estate startups are fighting the marketing wars, Square Yards has been focusing on real business metrics – revenues, profitability and market share – building significant traction and scale in two years of its existence.
The startup had raised $6 million (about Rs 40 crore) in April from a clutch of high net-worth individuals, while it achieved operating level profitability within 22 months of inception by adopting a differentiated strategy of selling primary real estate rather than offering a listing platform for primary and secondary market property transactions.
Founded in late 2013, Square Yards recently crossed Rs 100 crore in revenues, with a gross transaction value in excess of $450 (about Rs 2,970 crore), which is more than that of any other organised online or offline real estate player in India.
