A common pain point and an idea to undo an industry norm brought three IIT alumni together to form a team that disrupted a well-settled sector. Amit Kumar Agarwal, Saurabh Garg, Akhil Gupta challenged the brokerage aspect of real estate when they launched their business back in 2013. While CEO Amit and Saurabh had been batchmates during their MBA days, Akhil met the latter at IIT Bombay. The three nourished an idea, became friends, founded a startup, faced backlash and attacks but eventually succeeded in creating a unicorn.
Their company, NoBroker, is today worth $1 billion (over Rs 8,300 crore). It became the first real estate technology firm (proptech) in India to reach a billion-dollar valuation after picking up a funding of $210 million in November 2021. But some years ago, they faced a situation that isn’t typically that entrepreneurs brace for when building a business.
Co-founding and CBO Saurabh Garg had first realised the problem back in 2007 when he was rendered helpless in an effort to find an accommodation in Mumbai where he did not have to pay a substantial fee to brokers. He talked about it with his friends and found the problem mutual. That culminated into a technology solution that enabled tenants and owners, buyers and sellers, to bypass the brokerage aspect.
They rented a bungalow as an office and began the entrepreneurial journey. Little did they know that they were on the way to disrupting an industry and dismaying a few on the way. A group of brokers reached their head office one day and vandalised it, injuring their employees in 2015. The harassment and intimidation did not end and they had to move to a temporary location away from the vandalised workspace. The events strengthened their resolve. With enhanced safety and security, defying legal notices and threats, they eventually made the business successful and a unicorn.
