Settlin Raises Funds, Achieves Profitability with Powerhouse Ventures

Settlin, the dominant PropTech digital broker for resale homes, raised an undisclosed amount from Powerhouse Ventures, Kyt Ventures, Investo Monk, Guptaji Invests, Ah Ventures, PV Rao (PVR Cinemas) etc. The company has turned profitable recently and will invest the amount in smoothening the working capital flow and increasing its operations. They further aim to sell 4,000 units in the next 12 months.

Founded by the alumni of IIT-Kanpur & IMT-Nagpur, Settlin is the first & only e-commerce for resale homes providing an end-to-end platform, from property intent to registration. The primary target market for the company is ‘Resale Home’ Buying, which is 75% of the market demand and is currently operational in Bengaluru. With the intent of simplifying real estate transactions, they have created a robust tech platform for the automatic creation and execution of RE sales, including data analytics and other related services.

Sudhanshu, Co-founder of Settlin, shares, “We have grown 5x in the last 15 months, post our pre-series A and have successfully proven the model. Settlin currently handles 12,000 unique buyers monthly and are selling ~100 homes every month. With the help of our brilliant teammates, wise advisors, and resilient investors, we have achieved the unthinkable and reached this scale. We are at the start of a long journey of disrupting the real estate market with end-to-end transactions and feel we have the visibility on growth and the domain expertise to get us there.     ”

Consumer Tech has seen multiple waves and has evolved from classifieds to full-stack digital brokers such as JustDial to Amazon or Flipkart, OLX or Quikr to Spinny or Cartrade, and Zomato to Swiggy. The latter entities found success in end-to-end doorstep execution, sales via assembly line, devoid of human skills, and “pay-on-success” revenue models. Unfortunately, Indian PropTech has not seen such a ‘Digital Broker’, so no significant change has happened in the home buying process or experience for Indian buyers. In resale, most tech platforms behave like a classified, and the traditional route is followed right from ad shortlisting to dealing with multiple parties like lawyers, CA, and municipal officers for purchasing a resale property.

Settlin opts for a digitized approach to buy and sell resale homes online via assembly line automation of 9 different processes for the inventory & buyer, run by independent teams, each at 100-500x efficiency, creating each sale in a standardized manner with zero human sales involvement. The company also executes de-skilled offline property visits via a white-collar gig-greeter network, making it asset-light and scalable.

Using these processes, the company manages 1,000s of customers daily, both sellers and buyers, nudging and educating them towards the right match and the right price.  Centrally, each department takes care of complete operations, and deals happen as a by-product. The company also provides final assistance in safeguarding the token, getting legal verification, drafting agreements, facilitating home loans, ensuring tax compliance, executing the sale deed, etc.

Settlin is on target to sell 1,000 homes in CY2023. In the next 12 months, the company plans to expand to Mumbai in all kinds of residential properties, aims to sell 4,000 units and is currently raising growth capital.