Entrepreneur Dhruv Agarwala first met media mogul Rupert Murdoch, while he was a student at Harvard Business School. He was inspired by the Australian-American business magnate’s “hunger and energy”, Agarwala told Business Standard.

Almost 14 years later, on Tuesday, Murdoch’s News Corp announced an investment of $30 million in a real estate website, PropTiger.com, that Agarwala had started with two friends, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal. “When I met him in the US while the investment was still in the process of being finalised, the first thing I noticed was that his hunger and energy had not waned even a bit in all these years,” Agarwala was quoted in Business Standard as saying.

News Corp has bought a 25 per cent stake in Noida-based PropTiger.com. The investment further validates News Corp’s focus on India, where it already has presence through Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers.

“The investment creates a network effect to complement and build on the strength of the company’s collection of businesses, which include leaders in news, book publishing and digital real estate,” News Corp stated.

With this investment, Raju Narisetti, SVP - Strategy, News Corp, has joined the board of PropTiger.com’s Singapore-based parent company, Elara Technologies Pte Ltd.

Besides News Corp, PropTiger.com has raised an additional $7 million from existing investors — SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Horizen Ventures.

“India has 270 million internet users and the number is growing,” Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp, told Business Standard. “PropTiger.com will provide analysis, information and insight so that Indians will be better informed when they make the most significant investment decision any family will make, buying a home.”

Founded in February 2011, PropTiger.com is an independent real estate advisor with presence across India and with a little over 250 developer partners which market their new properties through it.

According to the statement issued by News Corp, around 10,000 properties with a combined value of over $1 billion have been bought by Indian home buyers through PropTiger.com since its inception. The company gets almost 40 per cent of its traffic from mobile applications.