A well-funded online classifieds network has entered the crowded marketplace in Costa Rica with a special focus on real estate and jobs. According to a news report filed by Leo Siqueira for the Advanced Interactive Media Group, Navent has been operating in 10 Latin American nations, and it decided to enter Costa Rica last month.

Navent owns the CompreoAlquile.com brand of online classifieds in Panama, where it is well-established. For the time being, the company has decided to keep management and hosting operations in Panama. Navent expects a healthy dose of competition from the major players in Costa Rica and Central America: BuscoMi, which is owned by the Grupo Nacion media empire, and Encuentra24, which started as a dominant force in Panama before expanding to other Latin American markets.

At this point, CompreoAlquile is in the process of building inventory so that it can match and surpass what is currently being offered by competitors. BuscoMiCasa, for example, has a little less than 5,100 real estate listings. An additional challenge would be to consolidate listings in Costa Rica, a market that is known to be heavily fragmented.

Navent has been operating since 1999, when it launched an online classifieds site dedicated to the job market. At the time, the company was inspired by the success of sites such as HotJobs and Monster. In 2000, one of the initial sites was acquired by the online portal Terra Lycos. By 2004, Navent was attracting the attention of investors such as Tiger Global Management.

Five years ago, Navent established its headquarters in Buenos Aires, from where it controlled a network of online classifieds websites across Latin America. The CompreoAlquile platform has been operating in Panama since 2013. These days the, company has offices in 10 countries and manages 1,000 employees.