[Updated] Barcelona-based LIFULL Connect acquires Thai property listing platform FazWaz

Editor’s note: The story has been updated to include comments from FazWaz.

LIFULL Connect, a Spanish marketplace aggregation network, has acquired Thai property listing platform FazWaz for an undisclosed amount, according to LIFULL’s first earnings report.

The startup has received $2 million in total funding and is valued at over $10 million, according to data compiled by DealStreetAsia.

“LIFULL Connect group, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, as a whole has about 180 million monthly visitors so LIFULL is the most transmitted real estate platform or aggregator in the world. That gives us an unparalleled reach for people who have listed with us, such as private owners and developers to be found online,” said Paul Trayman, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder at FazWaz.

The acquisition will bring together FazWaz and LIFULL’s portfolio company Dot Property, a Bangkok-based real estate marketplace. In 2020, Dot Property took over local online search engine for residential properties, Hipflat, to expand in Southeast Asia.

The proptech company most recently raised around $1 million in an undisclosed round from the second venture capital fund of 500 TukTuks, the Thai unit of 500 Global; Shinewell trading; and proptech investor Simon Baker in 2021, according to filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

Founded in 2015 by Brennan Campbell, Michael Kenner, and Paul Trayman, FazWaz was bootstrapped in the first four years of its operations, according to e27. The founding partners initially set out to tackle unprofessional property brokerage services in Asia where most real estate brokers are part-time workers.

In 2019, the Bangkok-based startup, which is registered in Singapore, received approximately $950,000 from DCV PTE LTD and Digital Advertising Holdings in its seed funding round, per ACRA filings.

FazWaz offers an online real estate marketplace in Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the UAE. The startup had closed more than 440 transactions in 2021 and grew the company to a team of around 80 in-house agents last year, per LIFULL’s earnings documents.

Since 2013, proptech startups in the Asia-Pacific have received around $4.8 billion in funding, or 60% of the over $7.8 billion invested in the sector worldwide, according to DealStreetAsia’s recent report Indonesia’s Proptech Market: Brick & Clouds.

In August 2022, Singapore-based property portal 99.co raised $52 million in its Series C round, which was led by Hong Kong-based private equity real estate firm Gaw Capital Partners among other investors.