Lamudi, the online property listings company that set up offices in Zimbabwe sometime last year has managed to raise $18 million in funding. This capital will be used for revenue and market share development funding for the global group.
According to report on TechCrunch, the capital was raised from Asia Pacific Internet Group. This is an investment vehicle which comprises of Rocket internet itself, Ooredoo – Holtzbrinck Ventures (a German investment outfit with interests in over 100 startups that include Wonga, Easy Taxi and Rocket Internet) and Tengelmann Ventures (another German venture capital firm that has fingers in startups like Carmudi, Jumia and Lamudi).
This concerted approach at emerging markets investments is what Rocket has also done in Africa, with a company called African Internet Holdings. The African coterie comprises of regional mobile network operator MTN, global telecoms giant Millicom and Rocket Internet. African Internet Holdings is the company that has a stake in Lamudi Zimbabwe.
While there is no clear indication of how this new capital injection will be distributed throughout the Lamudi global network, Paul Philip Hermann, the co-founder, outlined plans for monetising growing markets, winning competitive markets and adding new services to the Lamudi product.
in the case of Zimbabwe, that could be anything from a more aggressive marketing drive both online and offline as well as more work through product extensions like its mobile app. Lamudi, like other Rocket Internet ventures, is very particularly about having high visibility in the market.
Visibility will always be a huge priority for Rocket and in a market where online is not always the first concern for more established real estate players, Lamudi will likely make a lot of noise to assume the role of the “Leading Real Estate Service” in Zimbabwe.
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