Jugyah, an innovative proptech startup, has raised $1.5 million in a funding round led by White Venture Capital, QED Investors, and Godrej Properties. The round also saw participation from Whiteboard Capital, Singularity Ventures, and notable angel investors including Cred founder Kunal Shah, Harsh Jain of Dream Sports, and Ramakant Sharma of Livspace.
The Mumbai-based company, founded in 2023 by Arshad Balwa and Ansuman Mohanty, plans to utilize the fresh capital to expand its reach within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and increase its market share. Jugyah is a real estate brokerage platform that connects property buyers and tenants with sellers and landlords. In addition to this core service, the platform also provides an in-house mortgage origination arm offering financing options to its users.
“To truly solve the home buyer and renter’s problems, we had to re-architecture the entire home sale and rental value chain from first principles. We realized that listing platforms are very surface level and barely solve the search and discovery problem. What happens after, that is the visit, negotiation, transaction and post move-in experience, is completely offline and unstandardized,” said Balwa, cofounder of Jugyah. “By vertically integrating all the five steps through a digital platform with a physical experience center and embedding a fin-tech layer to remove nuisances and adding features such as legal assistance, loan financing we realized we could create an affordable, truly 10x, phygitally enabled method of finding a home. The goal is to make real estate brokerage a standardized product instead of a variable quality service.”
Jugyah’s platform mandates an e-KYC procedure and credit assessment for all tenants, enabling landlords to select credit-verified tenants for their properties. Buyers on the platform benefit from free seepage warranties, free legal support, and zero-commission mortgage pre-approval. To enhance the user experience, Jugyah has established offline experience centers across South Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, where buyers, sellers, tenants, and landlords can receive assistance from Jugyah’s agents.
The company reports a growth rate exceeding 50% month-over-month and anticipates being cash-flow positive by the end of the year. Jugyah highlighted the substantial market potential, noting that the long-term rental and resale market in India is projected to reach $300 billion by 2026, with the brokerage and property management market expected to hit $20 billion by the same year.
“We are excited about Jugyah’s vision to comprehensively solve challenges that buyers, renters, landlords and agents face in today’s marketplace. Arshad and Ansuman bring to bear insights, networks, and energy which can truly make a difference in the everyday lives of middle-class India in growing metropolises – we can’t wait to see what they will build here,” said Sandeep Patil, head of Asia at QED Investors.
Jugyah faces competition from other major players in the market, including Nobroker, Property Guru, and Housing. However, with its innovative approach and strong investor backing, Jugyah is well-positioned to make a significant impact in the Indian real estate sector.