?Lohia Group and L'Occitane CEO invest USD 10 million on Square Yards

Gurgaon-based property search aggregator Square Yards Consulting Pvt. Ltd, has raised USD10 million from the Lohia Group and Andre Hoffman, the chief executive of cosmetics company L'Occitane.

A group of unnamed investors also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to expand into newer international geographies and also strengthen its existing distribution network in over 10 countries, the company said in a statement.

The investment was made in the form of convertible notes. These are issued for a fixed term at a pre-determined coupon rate and with an option to convert into equity (at a discount) on reaching the next funding milestone. The new funding round comes two months after the company had secured Rs 80 crore ($12 million) from the private equity arm of billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.

In May 2015, the company had raised $6 million (Rs 32 crore) in a pre-Series A round of funding from a clutch of unnamed investors.

Kanika Gupta Shori, Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Square Yards, said, "For this latest investment round, we reached out to our own set of real estate clients in international locations through our NRI sales teams. Majority of these new funds have been invested by our existing clients."

Founded in 2013 by husband-wife duo of Tanuj Shori and Kanika, Square Yards offers solutions for property-related needs. It caters to residential and hotel projects, student accommodation and mall redevelopment.

The company claims to have crossed $1 billion in gross transactional value (GTV) in terms of total value of properties sold on its platform. It also claims net revenue run rate of $1.5 million - $2 million per month.

The online real estate space has seen a number of mergers. The most recent one was the merger between online real estate brokerage PropTiger.com and property listing portal Housing.com, announced earlier this week.

The combined entity received fresh funding of $55 million from their main investors.