OLX-Owned Properati Gets New CEO as Gabriel Gruber Leaves for New Crypto Startup

Latin American portal group Properati has announced that it has appointed Andrés Vega to the position of CEO. Vega replaces outgoing co-founder and CEO Gabriel Gruber who after 9 years leading the company is leaving to focus on a new crypto-currency lending startup.

Vega started his classifieds career at Properati's regional competitor Navent where he was Commercial Manager for Ecuador. He was then hired as Head of Sales for Ecuador by OLX Group where he oversaw both the autos and the real estate verticals before being promoted to Head of Sales for the Andean region in 2018. His most recent position was in the banking sector where he was part of the digital transformation of Banco Pichincha.

Andrés Vega, CEO of Properati

Speaking about his new role, Vega said:

"It's a pleasure to represent Properati in this role. I feel like this brand is my home. The challenges we have undertaken are thrilling and we have the motivation to become the best option for people to find their new home. We want to transform the experience of obtaining a place to live in Latin America."

Speaking of his new CEO, Martín Sarsale, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Properati commented:

"Andrés Vega has gotten to know Properati over several years and it's a pleasure to see his growth. I know he's going to contribute a lot to the evolution of the brand and bring a business strategy that will empower us to be the best at what we do."

Since its takeover in 2018, Properati has been OLX's real estate classifieds brand in its native Argentina as well as Colombia, Peru and Ecuador - the country where its new CEO hails from. The portal group claims to have 1.5 million monthly users across its network, a staff of 120 employees across its four markets and expects to turn over some $5 million this year.

The brand is part of a chasing pack of portals across Latin America. In its native Argentina it will hope to catch up to Argenprop (owned by local media group Grupo Clarín) and Zonaprop (owned by Navent). In Colombia it is behind Fincaraíz (Frontier Digital Ventures) and MetroCuadrado (el Tiempo). In Ecuador it is behind Plusvalia (Navent) while in Peru it is looking to catch adondevivir and Urbania (both Navent).