PropertyGuru Group’s CMO and fintech MD Bjorn Sprengers exits

PropertyGuru Group’s CMO and MD, fintech, Bjorn Sprengers (pictured), is leaving the company after nine years and returning to the Netherlands. PropertyGuru Group confirmed the move to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. According to the company, he was CMO until September this year and MD, fintech until this month.

As CMO, Sprengers built a team of marketing gurus and was responsible for the company’s brand, performance marketing, marketing infrastructure and operations, and corporate communications, the brand said. In his role as the MD, fintech, Sprengers led the group’s property financing solutions, including the launch of PropertyGuru Finance in 2020. Sprengers grew the team from scratch and as of September 2022, PropertyGuru Finance has brokered a loan book of over SG$3 billion with strong customer satisfaction ratings, the spokesperson said.

Since July 2022, Ian Tan has taken over as VP of marketing, marketplaces within PropertyGuru's marketplaces business, and it has been recruiting for a group CMO. "Leaders for the group CMO and managing director, fintech roles have been confirmed and will be announced early next year," the spokesperson added.

PropertyGuru Group’s CEO and MD, Hari V. Krishnan, said: “Sprengers and I have worked together for over six years now and have navigated many highs and lows as a team. I am very happy for him and his family as they start a new adventure. Importantly, he leaves behind a solid legacy in the form of two teams of gurus who are loyal, hardworking, and data oriented. I thank Sprengers for his leadership, his passion for the company, and his partnership.”

Sprengers previously worked at Contentoo and De Advocatenwijzer as an advisory board member and co-founder and non-executive board member respectively. He also worked for Philips for a little over 11 years in four positions, including senior director/marketing lead ASEAN for Philips consumer products, director product management for Philips skincare, senior marketing manager for Philips oral healthcare, and strategy consultant for Philips corporate strategy/M&A.

In October, PropertyGuru Group refreshed its brand positioning and made a slight change to its logo. The new brand position – "Where every step of your journey will be guided by Guru" – reflects PropertyGuru’s vision to be a trusted advisor. It echoes the group’s mission to help property seekers, sellers and owners make confident property decisions, beyond property search – as it journeys towards becoming Southeast Asia’s property "Trust Platform".

At the same time, it also rolled out a B2B arm, PropertyGuru for Business, that aims to guide enterprise clients such as property developers, agencies, banks, valuers, and policy/city planners. It includes proprietary solutions such as PropertyGuru Finance, DataSense, ValueNet, FastKey and event solutions, and will leverage data and tech to help enterprise clients tap into new growth opportunities.

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