HDFC, HDFC Life insurance acquires stake in Xanadu Realty

India’s largest private sector mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and its subsidiary HDFC Life Insurance Company has acquired a stake in a real estate business accelerator firm Xanadu Realty.
The strategic investment for a significant minority stake values the firm at around Rs 1,000 crore pre-money, said persons familiar with the development.

The investment from HDFC and HDFC Life Insurance Co. is expected to support Xanadu Realty’s proposed strategic expansion initiatives and developing proprietary tech platforms.

Both HDFC and Xanadu confirmed the transaction, but declined to comment on the deal size and valuation.

Started by industry experts R Karthik and Anurag Singhvi, Xanadu has helped realty developers in comprehensive turnaround of their real estate portfolio. It has developed and executed end to end strategy for product, design, marketing, and sales for developers.

“I have great faith in the professionals running Xanadu. I have known the founders, Karthik and Anurag for over a decade, and they are building an outstanding tech-driven, real estate organization focused on delivery of unique solutions for the large Indian real estate ecosystem,” Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC, told ET.

Recently, HDFC’s subsidiary HDFC Capital Advisors had also invested in Loyalie IT Solutions, a real estate digital amenities provider, under its programme to invest in technology companies for the benefit of the real estate ecosystem.

Founded in 2016, Xanadu Realty initiated the concept of providing end-to-end product-to-market services through its proprietary full-stack marketing and sales platform by which it takes over the entire revenue generation part of real estate developers’ projects or their entire portfolio.

“This investment is a validation of our differentiated approach to transform the real estate space with cutting edge technology solutions. This strategic partnership will go a long way in unlocking exponential potential for Xanadu Realty and Indian real estate sector at large,” said R. Karthik, MD & co-founder, Xanadu Realty.

Xanadu has worked with over 55 projects of 36 real estate developers including Hiranandani Group, Runwal Group, Tata Realty & Infrastructure, Ajmera Group, Raunak Group, Paranjape Schemes and Kumar Properties. The company’s client sales stood at over Rs 2,000 crore in 2021-22.

“We have grown 10 times in sales delivery since our inception. With over 600 employees across Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore offices, we have achieved sales of over Rs 2,000 crore for our clients in FY22 and this number is expected to double in FY23,” said Anurag Singhvi, MD & co-founder, Xanadu Realty.

Mumbai-based real estate focused Investment Bank Trustcap acted as the sole financial advisor to the transaction between HDFC and Xanadu Realty.

Xanadu works on a database of 65 lakh customers in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on its X-Intel platform, which is a database management system developed by the company.

This platform will be operationalised in Pune and Bangalore by the end of this financial year and gradually in other key markets. In the financial year 2021-22, the company has done over 80,000 face-to-face customer engagements and around 1 million interactions to deliver on the company’s business plans.