Vietnamese property technology startup Propzy has closed a $25 million Series A round led by real estate private equity firm Gaw Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia, per an announcement.
New and existing investors participating in the financing include Next Billion Ventures, RHL Ventures, Breeze, FEBE Ventures, RSquare and Insignia Ventures Partners.
Propzy’s founder John Le revealed to DealStreetAsia the startup’s $25-million fundraising plan in 2019, after mopping up $12 million from backers including Stonebridge Capital, Insignia, GS Shop, TNB Aura and Next Billion Ventures.
Founded in 2016, Propzy describes itself as a “FIRE-tech” (financial, insurance and real estate technology) company, operating a hybrid online to offline model. Its marketplace offers open house, closing-settlement services and turn-key mortgage financing.
The company said in its announcement that it will continue to expand its leasing services by leveraging the online to offline capabilities of its platform.
Propzy currently has 30 brick-and-mortar sales centres, with a total of 400 sales staff. It plans to enlarge the network to 70 centres and 1,300 advisors nationwide over the next 18 months.
Le added that the company has made over $1 billion in property transactions since inception.
“Propzy is an example of the many macroeconomic successes in Vietnam,” said Humbert Pang, managing partner at Gaw Capital, which has invested in a spate of Vietnam-based real estate projects.
Gaw Capital debuted its fund management services in the Vietnam market with the launch of the GAW NP Capital Vietnam Fund 1 in 2015.
Daniel Kang, a senior partner at SoftBank Ventures Asia, said: “The security that the Vietnamese economy offers to property investors and homebuyers is ideal for Propzy to thrive.”
SoftBank Ventures Asia is the early-stage venture arm of Japanese giant SoftBank Group. In Vietnam, it has previously invested in e-commerce startup Sendo.
The proptech segment in Vietnam has witnessed an uptick in investments. Last year, only Ho Chi Minh City-based Rever announced financing from homegrown VC firm VinaCapital Ventures and GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund. Since the start of this year, Homebase and Hoozing have bagged funding, prior to Propzy’s announcement.
The Series A round by Propzy marks yet another tech deal that has attracted a private equity player. PE firms such as Warburg Pincus, TA Associates, Northstar Group and Affirma Capital have invested in Vietnam’s e-commerce, logistics, fintech, SaaS and online recruitment sectors.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and state investor Temasek Holdings are among other active investors in the Southeast Asian country.
