Local property portal MOGUL.sg raises S$9m in its first Series A

SINGAPORE - Media OutReach - 15 November 2022 - MOGUL.sg, a homegrown AI-driven property portal, has raised S$9 million in its first-ever funding round.

The lead investor is Nech Capital, a Singapore-based alternative investment management company that invests in both public and private equities, including SMEs and start-ups.

Gerald Sim, CEO, and founder of MOGUL.sg said: "Here at MOGUL.sg, it has always been our aim to improve users' experience in the property search. We have been consistently adding features to our website, so that users – be they buyers, sellers, agents, or real estate developers, can improve their productivity with the tools provided. With this aim in mind, we were careful in the selection of incoming investors during this Series A round. We are delighted to welcome our new partners who will not only help us fund the development of more useful features, but also value-add in their own ways to support our push towards reinventing the entire real estate transaction journey."

With the funding, MOGUL.sg is looking to add more features to their website's 3D map such as indoor mapping and navigation while providing additional data to users that will help them better understand the surroundings and derive more accurate valuations of the properties that banks will adopt readily.

Eventually, MOGUL.sg wants to empower users with the ability to directly transact property on the platform. This will encompass features such as online viewing of property (external, internal, shadow casting), valuation, conveyancing (via online mode), and online application of the mortgage.

Since the start of 2022, MOGUL.sg has seen a 20% growth among active and new users. Following the positive adoption rate, the Singapore company behind this portal has decided to start its first fundraising in June this year to expand its technology offering to users. Given its good business revenue over the past years and partially self-funded by its owners, it met with great enthusiasm from investors locally and abroad who wanted to be part of the new-generation portal, leading to an oversubscription of the rights to be issued. The business has seen an increase in revenue from property developers and agencies who have placed orders with Mogul to develop 3D models of new residential properties to be displayed on the 3D map.

MOGUL.sg started with the aim to make property search smarter using their custom keywords search algorithm, which was developed in-house, by gathering geospatial data from several sources, including authoritative platforms such as OneMap. Their library of over 5,000 custom keywords caters to a refined search that describes the characteristics of the property that the users are searching for. Keywords such as "East-West Line", "Park", "Primary School", "And Balcony" among others, can be used to refine the search results, enabling users to learn about amenities in the neighbourhood and understand what they are signing up for before purchasing or renting the property.

Early this year, MOGUL.sg rolled out an interactive 3D map in its property search portal to support searches with an immersive experience to help prospective home buyers visualize the properties and their surrounding areas better. They can see whether the property encounters any view obstructions caused by nearby buildings, check whether the property has an unblocked view of the sea, and even the exact direction of the sun at various times of the day.

These features have attracted residential developers such as Guocoland, Victory Land, and Amara Holdings to include their yet-to-be-constructed upcoming new projects on MOGUL.sg's 3D map so that potential buyers are able to view and examine the projects prior to purchase. Property agencies, including PropertyLim Brothers and OrangeTee, have also been quick to adopt MOGUL.sg's 3D map to provide their clients with more information of the properties, thus improving the sales experience.