Amarendra Sahu, the co-founder and former CEO of the home renting platform NestAway, has taken an uncommon step for a startup founder by filing a criminal lawsuit against his fellow co-founders Jitendra Jagadev and Smruti Parida, as well as lead investors Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, and Chiratae Ventures. In his native state of Odisha, Sahu has submitted a First Information Report (FIR) to the Bhubaneswar Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, Chiratae Ventures, and the other co-founders of the company are accused of fraud, deception, document forgery, and criminal intimidation in the complaint.
Since December 10, 2024, the Orissa High Court has been considering petitions pertaining to the issue. The case will be reviewed once more on January 9. According to Sahu’s allegation, NestAway’s June 28, 2023, INR 90-crore sale to proptech startup Aurum was fraudulently completed using his signature as a company director. He made it clear that he had left his position as director on June 19, 2023, more than a week before the agreement was finalised.
NestAway’s Valuation Decline After the Acquisition
NestAway’s valuation dropped by 95% following its acquisition by Aurum. Since its founding in 2015, the Bengaluru-based business has raised a total of $116 million in investment. NestAway raised $220 million (INR 1,810 crore) in its most recent investment round in 2019 from well-known investors like Yuri Milner, Flipkart, Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global, and UC-RNT Fund.
Sahu claimed in the FIR that the company experienced significant losses as a result of the disruptions to its operations caused by the pandemic in 2020–2022. Additionally, Sahu worked remotely from his home office in Odisha because of the epidemic and his elderly parents. Investors Goldman Sachs and Tiger Global resigned from the board when the company was in serious financial trouble in order to protect their own money and reputation. Jitendra Jagadev, Smruti Parida, and Deepak Dhar, the other three partners, also departed the business.
However, Sahu persisted in running the business without receiving any compensation, and the FIR claimed that because of his genuine efforts and commitment, the business survived and was restored to a sustainable state.
How the Acquisition Deal was Cracked Without Informing Sahu?
Sahu claimed that without consulting him or the more than 250 shareholders, the investors obtained a direct offer to sell their shares to Aurum at a very cheap price through cooperation with one of the directors, Jitendra Jagadev. Sahu stated that the investors convinced him to sell his shares and help sell others’ shares because they were worried that the deal might not go through.
According to Sahu’s complaint, the principal investors—Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, and Chiratae Ventures—convinced him to pay an extra INR 11.72 crore over the value of his 5% investment through phone calls, WhatsApp messages, and emails. However, when the deal was completed, they allegedly denied this commitment.
Chiratae Ventures, acting on behalf of all investors, persuaded Sahu to sell the business to a third party they had arranged through a number of in-person and virtual meetings out of concern that Sahu and other shareholders’ rejection would delay their plan to sell their shares. In the FIR, Sahu stated, “They promised to give me an additional INR 11.72 crore from their portion of the sale proceeds in appreciation of my prior work and the efforts necessary for the sale.”
Sahu unwittingly consented, believing their words and their reputation, and carried out all of the work of pitching the business through WhatsApp chats, phone calls, and emails while continuing to work from Bhubaneswar. As a stockholder, he sent over all signed papers, including the sale agreement. On June 28, 2023, Sahu stated in the FIR that the investors, Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs, Chiratae Ventures, and Schroders Adveq, forcibly closed the sale transaction in favour of Aurum at a consideration of INR 90 crore after denying Sahu their promise of INR 11.72 crore after obtaining the signed documents and consent forms.
According to the investigation, Sahu owes Tiger Global INR 4.8 crore, Chiratae Ventures and its affiliates INR 2.18 crore, Goldman Sachs INR 2.04 crore, UC-RNT Fund INR 1.81 crore, and Schroders Adveq INR 0.89 crore.
Startups based on rental apps (for handheld devices and computers) provide services to people for leasing cars, bikes, rooms, homes, or heavy equipment. Rental startups are there to facilitate a way for people to experience something without owning it. One can think of driving that dream car or bike for a short term without having to purchase it at an exorbitant price.
The forecasted Car Rentals segment revenue for India is at $2.17 billion in 2022. By 2026, a market volume of $2.95 billion is predicted, with revenue forecast to expand 7.92% annually (CAGR 2022-2026). This article discusses the leading rental companies in India that are radically changing this sector.
The Global bike-sharing market is estimated to grow to over 13.7 Billion by 2026
Myles
Founder
Sakshi Vij
Founded in
2013
Operational cities
Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Noida, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, and other 13 cities
Myles Founder | Rental Startups in India
Myles often reviewed as one of the best car rental companies in India, has 38 awesome cars one can choose from according to the need. Myles allows you to rent a car across 21 major cities in India. The cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Goa, Jaipur, Pune, and many more.
Zoomcar
Founders
Greg Moran and David Back
Founded in
2013
Operational cities
Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and other 28 cities
Zoomcar Founders | Greg Moran and David Back
Zoomcar is one of the top rental companies in India, operating in over 34 cities. You can hire a car from a diverse spectrum that starts with a Tata Nano and extends to expensive, high-end models like the Mercedes GLA. You can rent a car anywhere from an hour to a month.
House Rental Startups
According to Knight Frank India, the average home price increased by 3% to 10% in July-September, 2022, while office rent increased up to 13% as a result of increased demand for properties. Here are some of the property rental startups in India:
Housing
Founders
Rahul Yadav and 11 other IIT, Bombay Graduates
Founded in
2012
Operational cities
Chennai, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, and other 34 cities
Housing ex-Founder and ex-CE0 | Rahul Yadav(on right)
For those looking for a flat on rent, Housing is the answer. This startup is devoted to connecting people with the one of their choice. You can choose from different types of flats: fully furnished, unfurnished, semi-furnished, etc. The extensive network for Housing across India means that finding a place will be as easy as ABC!
Fairpockets
Founders
Ritesh Anand & Rumki Sengupta
Founded in
2017
Operational cities
PAN India
Fairpockets Logo | Rental Startups in India
Fairpockets is a fair-price property portal and a SaaS-based mobile marketplace. It is an online platform that connects the trio of buyers, sellers, and brokers. Fairpockets allows free property posting on its website, and the valuation of the property is done for resale before the advertisement goes live. One can also rent properties through Fairpockets. Its price calculator, inventory management, lead management, and communication system features are highly rated and sought after.
NoBroker
Founders
Amit Kumar Agarwal, Akhil Gupta, and Saurabh Garg
Founded in
2014
Operational cities
Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and other cities
NoBroker co-founders | Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal, and Akhil Gupta
NoBroker is another application that assists in putting up homes for rent. As the name suggests, the startup stays clear of brokers and other middlemen to avoid unnecessary problems. The platform has over 30,00,000 monthly users, and its services are available in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon.
RentRoomi
Founders
Nitin Sharma
Founded in
2016
Operational cities
Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, and other cities
RentRoomi Logo | Rental Startups in India
RentRoomi helps search for accommodations avoiding fake listings and endless site visits. The company is working to solve the problem of Generation Y by letting them find suitable accommodation in cities with the roomies of their choice. RentRoomi currently operates in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Nitin Sharma is the founder and CEO of RentRoomi. An engineer by qualification, Nitin worked in a software development company as a project planning and business developer before starting RentRoomi.
99acres
Founders
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Founded in
2005
Operational cities
Across India
99acres Logo | Rental Startups in India
99acres is an Indian real estate platform founded in 2005 by Sanjeev Bikhchandani. It allows users to search for properties and land to buy, sell and rent, all through the comfort of their mobile phones. The company caters to almost all Indian cities and is a behemoth in the online real estate market. Over 10,000 properties are listed every day.
Magicbricks
Founders
The Times Group
Founded in
2006
Operational cities
Bangalore , Chandigarh , Chennai, Delhi NCR, and other cities
Magicbricks Logo | Rental Startups in India
Magicbricks is a division of Times Internet Group Limited. The platform allows buyers and sellers to locate properties in India. Magicbricks provides all the information about the property it lists and let people buy or rent the same through its website. It has over 15,00,000 active property listings. Founded in 2006, it has its headquarters in Noida.
NestAway
Founders
Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar, and Jitendra Jagadev
NestAway is an online home rental marketplace for individuals and families. It provides fully furnished and well-maintained rooms and flats for rent without brokerage fees. NestAway has headquarters in Bengaluru, and its services are across 13 cities, including Noida, Pune, and Mumbai.
Room rental Startups
Airbnb
Founders
Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia
Founded in
2008
Operational cities
220+ countries and regions
Airbnb Logo | Rental Startups in India
Airbnb is a California-based startup for arranging and offering to lodge. Airbnb focuses on temporary homestay and tourism. It provides rooms for the home stay to people, and homeowners can easily list their properties on their platform using the Airbnb app or website. Airbnb acts as a broker, receiving a commission for each booking made from its platform.
OYO rooms
Founders
Ritesh Agarwal
Founded in
2012
Operational areas
Europe, Asia and United States
OYO Logo | Rental Startups in India
OYO, a Gurgaon-based company, is the biggest platform in India and one of the world’s fastest-growing hotel chains for booking hotel rooms at pocket-friendly prices. The parent company of OYO is Oravel Stays Private Limited. Its services are available in 35 countries. Under Ritesh Agarwal, OYO is rapidly building its dominance outside India through an acquisition spree.
TRIVAGO
Founders
Rolf Schrömgens, Stephan Stubner, Peter Vinnemeier, and Malte Siewert
Founded in
2005
Operational areas
190 countries worldwide
trivago Logo | Rental Startups in India
A Germany-based company, trivago specializes in Internet-related services and products in the hotel, lodging, and meta-search fields. trivago, founded in Germany in January 2005, offers research and compares facilities for over 5 million hotels by leveraging information from over 300 hotel booking sites and other types of accommodation in over 190 countries.
Medical Equipment Rental Startups
PrimedeQ
Founders
Shanthi Mathur and Achudhan Mani
Founded in
2016
Operational areas
250 hospitals across 6+ states and 65+ cities
PrimedeQ Logo | Rental Startups in India
PrimedeQ, India’s first comprehensive B2B eMarketplace for Products and Services related to medical equipment & devices, provides access to multiple affordable, good-quality medical equipment for rent. It aims at bringing down selling costs for sellers through its virtual platform. Hospitals can buy, sell or rent equipment, get medical equipment serviced, and purchase spares & accessories–both new and used. Shanthi Mathur and Achudhan Mani are the founders of PrimedeQ. Shanthi Mathur is the CEO of PrimedeQ, whereas Achudhan Mani is the director of PrimedeQ.
Portea
Co-Founder and Chairperson
Meena Ganesh
Founded in
2013
Operational cities
Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, and other cities
Portea Logo | Rental Startups in India
Portea provides healthcare equipment rental services in over 40 cities in India. In addition to medical equipment, it lists healthcare professionals’ services like attendants, nurses, and doctors. One can place an order for medical equipment(s) on Portea’s website and get the same delivered to their doorstep. Portea also provides a lab test facility at home.
Conclusion
Renting is not only cheaper but also gets rid of the tension that comes bundled with ownership. There has been a seismic shift toward the renting culture, especially among the millennials. The craze for tourism and exploration has only bolstered this shift.
FAQs
Which are the top Rental Startups in India?
Some of the top Rental Startups in India are:
Myles
Zoomcar
99acres
NoBroker
Magicbricks
Housing
Fairpockets
NestAway
OYO
trivago
Airbnb
RentRoomi
PrimedeQ
Portea
Which are the sites for rental homes in India?
99acres, NoBroker, Magicbricks, and NestAway are the best site for rental homes in India.
Is Zoomcar a good option?
With Zoomcar, you can hire a rental or self-drive vehicle of your choice for a reasonable price. The cars have all-India permits, and Zoomcar offers many stations across the nation from where you can pick up your preferred vehicle. So it is a good option.
Which is the site to sell property in India?
99acres, NoBroker, Magicbricks, and NestAway are among the best sites to sell property in India.
Which are the sites for hotel booking in India?
OYO rooms and trivago are the hotel booking sites in India.
Which are Medical Equipment Rental Startups in India?
PrimedeQ and Portea are among the best Medical Equipment Rental Startups in India.
These days we are getting almost everything at our doorsteps, thanks to all the great startups that have made it possible. But do you know that there are some great startups that provide you even real estate services at your fingertips?
Technology has made this process very easy. One can have all the information related to a property with just a click on the internet. The real estate industry is using enhanced technologies like Machine Learning, AI and other powerful tools to enhance customer services. Real estate has become the current hot industry among working employees and students who are away from their hometowns.
Everyone wants a piece of land. It’s the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or washing machine. Land will only double its value in ten years. – Sam Shepard, American actor, and author
As per a report from Statistica.com 99% of the residents aged between 31-40 years use the internet while searching for a home in the US. India is also a developing nation and the internet has penetrated the entire country. So, one can expect more and more people to look for a home on the internet. Thus real estate has become a hot topic for tech-based startups. Let’s see what are some of the best Real Estate startups in India and what they offer.
Quikr is a Bangalore-based Indian classified advertising platform founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008. They provide platforms in various categories such as household goods, cars, mobile phones and also real estate. QuikrHomes is a merged property portal of Quikr with CommonFloor, launched in September 2015. It allows the users to search for residential, commercial and agricultural properties to either buy or rent out.
Founders: Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev
Founded: 2015
NestAway Homepage
NestAway is a Bangalore-based online platform founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015. NestAway provides homeowners to list their properties for rent and home seekers to find furnished homes to choose from and book from. Their app provides furnished home bookings, services like home cleaning, electric and plumbing checks, and more.
NestAway allows its users to find, book, and move into a rental home of their choice across almost all Indian cities. They aim at providing better rental solutions with the help of design and technology. The company presently caters for all the major cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and more.
PropTiger is a Noida-based property portal founded in 2011 that allows users to buy property in India. The users leave their required property specifications online and PropTiger offers solutions with a wide range of services including identifying apartment options, organizing site visits, budget and affordability analysis, helping with unit selection and application filing with real estate developers to facilitate housing loans.
PropTiger is currently present in 12+ cities, including major cities like Noida, Gurgaon, Ahemdabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. They have over 30,000 properties listed on their website and have over 300 agents. PropTiger has sold over RS 15,000 crore worth of properties.
Colive
Founder: Sundari Rangarajan
Founded: 2016
Colive Homepage
Colive is a technology-powered network of branded serviced homes that offers rooms for high-end and well-located shared rooms that are a modern and sustainable lifestyle. The company was founded by Sundari Rangarajan in 2016 based in Bangalore. They provide an “all-in” solution including the layout of the house, services of cleaning, internet and TV, insurance, water, gas and electricity. Colive provides home rentals, shared living spaces, and PGs located near educational institutions and workplaces.
awfis
Founder: Amit Ramani
Founded: 2015
Awfis Homepage
awfis is a Delhi-based provider of managed coworking spaces founded by Amit Ramani in 2015. It allows users to browse for spaces based on the type of space, city, locality and capacity. On awfis’ platform, most of the facilities are on the managed aggregation model. The owner gives the property to the company at no upfront cost and takes a higher share of the revenue.
The users on awfis can book work desks, private cabinets, business centres, and meeting rooms and book them online. They provide a platform where its community members can regularly interact, network, and share ideas at events and seminars. It connects the members with service providers in the field of accounting, legal, recruitment, payments, web services and other services as well. To support its community members, awfis has partnered with Incubators/Accelerators, Angel Networks, VC Funds and Startup Mentors.
Ghar360
Founders: Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas
Founded: 2012
Ghar360 Homepage
Ghar360 is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas in 2012 it is a cloud-based 3D augmented reality platform that lets its users experience a virtual walk through the house with the digital platform even before it is constricted.
Ghar360 has developed a unique idea to reinvent the interior shopping experience by digitizing the floor plan into an interactive walkable space which is constructed to make customers an idea of the reality of the living space before purchasing it. The startup has raised total funding of $20k from TLabs.
ZoloStays
Founder: Akhil Sikri
Founded: 2015
ZoloStays Homepage
ZoloStays is a Bangalore-based provider of branded accommodations founded by Akhil Sikri in 2015. The startup offers PGs, serviced apartments and independent flats. They also provide amenities like TV, Wi-fi, fridge, washing machine, food, RO water facility, power backup and more.
ZoloStays associates with owners and offers the properties as managed accommodations. PG owners who manage their own properties can also affiliate with ZoloStays and accept non-Zolo tenants. The company has raised total funding of up to $100 million and earned revenue by charging a commission on the monthly rent.
NoBroker
Founders: Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Akhil Gupta
Founded: 2014
NoBroker Homepage
NoBroker is a Bangalore-based real estate search platform founded by Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Akhil Gupta in 2014. NoBroker eliminates brokers while connecting flat owners and landlords with tenants. It is a C2C model of property portal that uses advanced technologies like Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to sort, select and list properties better by gathering data and extracting listing information from images of ‘to-let’ signs.
Nobroker has now forayed into a brokerage-free buy and-sell properties as well and the company also verifies each listing to make sure they are owners and not middlemen maintaining the authenticity of the platform.
StayAbode
Founders: Viral Chhajer and Devanshish Dalmiya
Founded: 2016
StayAbode Homepage
StayAbode is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Christ University alumni Viral Chhajer and Devanshish Dalmiya in 2016 that builds coliving spaces for the rental residential real estate market. In 2020, it was acquired by NestAway for an undisclosed amount. They thrive at providing a hassle-free abode to millennials looking for coliving spaces using the platform of technology as a source to offer small private spaces to its users that are elegant and fully furnished.
They also provide their users with a safe environment and cover utilities. They provide fully furnished rooms and amenities like wi-fi, water, electricity, maintenance, parking and DTH. StayAbode takes up entire building space on long-term leases and then re-works the interiors to convert it to a co-living space and then sub-rent it to their customers.
Square Yards
Founders: Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta
Founded: 2013
Square Yards Homepage
Square Yards is a Delhi-based online real estate advisory and brokerage services firm founded in 2013 by Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta – an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management. The company has a field employee base of about 500 across five countries and is active in 15 cities in India. On the platform, each client is assigned a unique relationship manager who handholds the clients throughout the asset ownership – similar to a private banking model.
It is currently located in ten countries and 31 cities and has more than 1000 employees. Square Yards has been valued at more than $288 million as of 2019 and has also banked the ‘Real-Estate Marketing Company of the year by Accommodation Times and ‘Startup of the year’ by Silicon India.
Grexter Living
Founders: Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi
Founded: 2016
Grexter Living Homepage
Grexter Living is a coliving space startup founded by Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi. Grexter Living offers functional and built-to-suit urban studio rooms that provide all the necessary amenities and, at the same time, are aesthetically appealing. Catering primarily to salaried employees, fresh graduates, and techies in the age group of 18-30 years, the spaces they provide consist of a large common kitchen with another huge designated area that has lounges, gaming consoles, and home theatres.
CoHo
Founder: Uday Lakkar
Founded: 2015
CoHo Homepage
CoHo is one of the country’s first coliving spaces was founded in 2015. It offers fully furnished accommodation on a sharing and individual basis with amenities such as hot food, wifi, laundry services, and 24/7 security, along with access to common spaces such as lounges, games and reading rooms and special events such as poker nights.All this without any security deposit, brokerage or furnishing costs.
CoHo raised funds from veterans like Sachin Bhatia (Co-founder, MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly), Rajesh Sawhney (Co-Founder, GSF and InnerChef), Mahesh Parasuraman (Ex-MD, Carlyle PE), Dheeraj Jain (Partner, UK based Hedge fund), amongst others.
Conclusion
Real estate is one of the biggest industries in the world. The Indian real estate industry is expected to reach a US$1 trillion market by 2030. These startups are prominent contributors to the growing industry of real estate. They are making real estate easy to access and making it more affordable for a normal person to buy or rent a property.
FAQs
What are the top real estate startups in India?
QuikrHomes
NestAway
PropTiger
Colive
Awfis
Ghar360
ZoloStays
NoBroker
Grexter Living
Square Yards
CoHo
StayAbode
Is real estate a good business?
Yes, the scope for demand makes it a profitable business. The real estate market size will become USD 1 trillion by 2030, accounting for 18-20% of India’s GDP.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by StayAbode.
Many young people, every year, move out of their home towns in pursuit of better education or in search of better employment opportunities. A common problem these youth have to face in the new cities is that of finding decent accommodation. Looking for a well-maintained place within budget, arranging furniture, finding good companions, arranging for domestic help, wi-fi and TV connections, all of these sounds really stressful for students and young professionals moving to new cities.
But now, a different concept is fast becoming popular among the youths in India, which solves all these worries and makes shifting to a new city easier. Co-living is the term of this new concept that brings in a new way of living for people who are staying away from their hometowns. StayAbode a Bangalore-based startup founded in 2016, has become quite a popular name in the field of co-living spaces.
NestAway’s co-living subsidiary, The Hello World had initially acquired StayAbode, with a capacity of 2000 beds, in an undisclosed value deal in 2020. The Hello World then had 20,000 beds and planned to add 30,000 more beds by the end of 2022. StayAbode has again been acquired by Housr, as confirmed by the news dated June 27, 2022. StayAbode now stays acquired by Housr, which is a managed accommodation platform in India.
Check this StartupTalky article to know more about StayAbode, its Founders and Team, Business and Revenue model, Growth, StayAbode Startup Story, the StayAbode acquisition and more.
StayAbode provides professionally managed co-living spaces for rent. StayAbode takes care of all the accommodation-related worries that one faces on moving to a new city. From furnishing to security from housekeeping to maintenance, StayAbode manages it all.
StayAbode uses design, technology, service, and brand to build co-living spaces for the rental residential market at scale. StayAbode’s co-living spaces support the lifestyle of the young, single sociable household, enabling a high level of comfort, convenience, and a sense of community with shared spaces such as kitchens, common areas, game areas, and places to dine and work. StayAbode’s co-living spaces are building the future of residential real estate for urban millennials.
What is StayAbode?
StayAbode solves all the living issues that young professionals face when they move to a new city. From difficult landlords to high deposits and unfair rentals, StayAbode is the solution for all.
Currently operating in Bangalore, StayAbode offers beautiful, fully furnished living spaces. These spaces are designed in a way that the residents have their own private spaces plus there are shared spaces for working, dining, kitchen spaces, etc. Thus, the residents continue to have their private space along with a community of like-minded people, which do not let them feel lonely and left out in the new city.
StayAbode CoLiving
The facilities that StayAbode provides to its dwellers include-
Fully furnished living spaces
Housekeeping services
On-site laundry
All-inclusive rent
A nominal deposit that is easy on the pocket.
Living spaces are fully secured
Expert team for repairing/ maintenance work
Resident-only app, through which one can avail of various services and get updates.
We believe we are well set to solve for millennial living in today’s sharing economy where the consumer gives access, a greater significance than ownership.
A community of like-minded and inspiring individuals, a designated community manager who takes care of every need of the residents, and a policy of indiscrimination that lets everyone irrespective of gender, marital status, etc be a part of its co-living community which is an important USP of StayAbode.
StayAbode – Industry
As per the recent IBEF reports, there are more than 75 co-living companies in India, which itself, indicates the demand for co-living spaces in the country. The co-living market of India is expected to grow to 5.7 mn from 4.19 mn. The size of the coliving sector, which stood at over $6.5 bn, when last recorded in April 2022, is expected to grow 2X to reach $13.92 bn by the same time.
StayAbode – Name and Logo
The idea was to build a brand that solves for living across the journey of a consumer from the first time they become independent in life all the way into their retirement years.
“We were looking for a name that could encompass this entire journey and we felt that ‘Abode’ captured that. To reinforce the ‘living’ emotion, we liked the way StayAbode worked and it was something that was effortless and rolled off smoothly”.
StayAbode Logo
StayAbode – Founders & Team
Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya are the founders of StayAbode.
StayAbode Founders
Viral Chhajer
Viral Chhajer is the CEO of StayAbode. He is a graduate in Business Administration and worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and Runnr, before StayAbode. He also co-founded Bribe Me, an app that is India’s first flash sale marketplace that allows users to avail of exclusive offers in real-time. Viral exited Bribe Me in 2015.
Varun Bhalla
Varun Bhalla is a computer science graduate and was also a part of the Bribe Me venture with Viral. Prior to StayAbode Varun worked as a mobile app developer in companies like foofys and Treebo Hotels.
Devasish Dalmiya
Devasish Dalmiya holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Devashish and Viral are an alumnus of Christ University Bangalore. Devashish had been a part of companies like International Money Matters Pvt Ltd, Right Horizons Investment Advisory and Wealth Management Pvt Ltd, and Roadhouse Hostels, before starting up with StayAbode. Dalmiya left StayAbode in October 2020 and is currently working at BASIC Home Loan as a Director of Business Development.
StayAbode Ventures has registered its employee count between 51-200, as per its Linkedin profile.
StayAbode – Mission
The StayAbode mission statement says that the startup is looking to “make life convenient and enriching for our residents.”
StayAbode – How It All Started?
“It all started off with independent living,” says Devashish. Devashish noticed that though people somehow manage to find a living space in cities, they are left with many unsolved problems. They do not find like-minded people to live with, plus just finding a home is not enough, there are lots to take care of like food, furnishing, etc. While Devashish was backpacking across Europe, he saw that there were managed communities where students lived together, and wanted to introduce the same concept to India also.
He pondered on the issues young people moving to a new city were facing. “It pretty much boils down to two – uncertainty and loneliness. It’s not just enough that they have to navigate a new and unknown real estate market, they also have to figure out how to mesh in with the city and its people so that they don’t keep feeling like outsiders”.
There are 3 types of people who come to the city on any given day: tourists, travellers, and settlers. While the tourist and traveller have their own defined solutions, the settler is the group that needs the ecosystem, both great living space and a like-minded community. That’s the category that StayAbode aims its services at. StayAbode was started with the intention to create a brand that allows the settlers to maximize their productivity with a supportive community and a hassle-free living experience.
“StayAbode is the answer to all your big city living woes,” said he.
The concept is fairly new in India. But data shows young professionals and students would prefer to stay in places where they can be part of a community while having their own little piece of private space. StayAbode enables this by using technology and design thinking to create private spaces and common areas that lead to collisions that bring the community together.
Living with like-minded people and engendering a community of people ready to share and create together, can be the perfect recipe for the millennial living experience. When you live and learn together, you grow together. Imagine being able to meet new people, be supremely productive, come home to a great living space and be able to truly find yourself in a new city. Life suddenly seems so simple.
StayAbode – Business & Revenue Model
The StayAbode business model follows a full-stack model, not a part-inventory one. It leases out complete buildings – from the basement to the terrace, and turns them into co-living spaces. After that, StayAbode’s team puts together the furniture and common-room setups, ensuring the space has everything that a tenant needs, including add-ons like community kitchens, study areas, reading spaces, and even barbeque grills in some properties.
As far as the StayAbode revenue model is considered, they charge a fixed rent that covers living and utility expenses and has a defined margin with every landowner, which differs from property to property. The company’s objective is to create a win-win situation for itself and the property owners by ensuring high occupancy.
Anupam Mittal, Vineet Sekhsaria, Lets Venture Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India) and Akatsuki.
August 2017
Seed
Undisclosed
Incubate Fund
February 2017
Angel
Undisclosed
Angie Mahtaney & Ishan Manaktala
StayAbode – Growth
StayAbode has grown to become one of the leading names when it comes to co-living spaces in Bangalore since it was founded in 2016. This Bangalore-based coliving service provider has been acquired by Housr, one of India’s leading co-living players on June 27, 2022.
With this deal, Housr will add more than 20+ properties launched in Bengaluru, and over 1200 beds to its inventory in the major hubs of Bangalore like HSR Layout, Koramangala, Marathalli, Indiranagar, and Electronic City. The StayAbode acquisition of Housr will mark its powerful foray into Bengaluru and will strengthen its presence in South India. The parent of StayAbode further has planned to have 12000+ beds by March 2023, This will be made possible by combining Housr Co-Living and Housr Homes.
On its acquisition, team StayAbode said, “The concept of co-living is still germinating in India. Handing over the baton to one of India’s leading co-living players puts us on a better collective footing to popularise managed accommodation amongst a skeptical Indian audience.”
StayAbode – User Acquisition
Referrals, SEM, and social media marketing worked best for StayAbode. StayAbode is one of the first players in co-living spaces and people were quite curious about and eager to try this new concept. Besides, StayAbode was also building up curiosity regarding co-living spaces through Facebook posts.
The company launched its first few properties in popular locations across Bangalore where the target group for co-living spaces was present.
“Cliched as it may sound, a great experience and community engagement in our business is the ultimate hack. We have seen the highest percentage of extensions where we have ensured a consistent experience across both the living and community experience. This has guaranteed us a fairly high rate of referrals across these properties too and we have always used these properties and the teams running them as a benchmark within the organization to ensure a consistent experience” says Devashish.
StayAbode – Startup Challenges
A major challenge, in the beginning, was solving the sales pitch for the property owners. There were property owners who hesitated about letting their properties be transformed by StayAbode in the process of designing co-living areas. In such cases, the StayAbode team focused on explaining and showing the property owners how a well-designed property was allowing for better return and performance.
An increasing number of players are now entering the co-living space but everyone tends to operate on different models with different focus areas. StayAbode strives to stand out from the competition by providing an excellent resident experience to its dwellers. Besides, it is also constantly improving operational efficiency to give the property owners better value.
StayAbode—Future Plans
StayAbode is currently operating with around 20 properties in Bangalore. As a Housr subsidiary, the company is dreaming the Housr dream of having over 12K beds, and scaling up to 100+ properties across the country by the end of March 2023.
Moving to a new city can be daunting and inconvenient. Over the last few years, it has become more challenging to find a convenient and fulfilling home on rent at an affordable cost. So, we decided to address this very issue by serving StayAbode as a solution – beautiful, fully-furnished private homes with shared spaces, that add value to our residents’ lives at less cost. All said and done, we’re here to make a difference – in living and in lives.
Conclusion
StayAbode is more than just brick and mortar. They go beyond giving their residents four walls. The company knows that shifting to a new city can be a nightmare. This is why the ready-to-move-in homes of StayAbode, come with all-inclusive amenities. Besides, the thoughtfully designed shared spaces of StayAbode make it super convenient to move in and have an enriching stay. Also, StayAbode has been designed to foster human interactions. With a community of inspiring people from different walks of life, it is the perfect place to share experiences, network, learn and stay inspired.
In the StayAbode community, the possibilities of events and gatherings are infinite. From movie nights, match nights, mini gigs, cook-offs, and potluck parties to festival celebrations, you can indulge in a myriad of events and celebrations. At StayAbode, they curate the profiles to maintain the quality of their community. They verify the personal and professional profiles of every applicant and follow up with a thorough background check. Moreover, all the shared spaces are equipped with CCTV cameras to ensure safety and security. In the conclusion, with StayAbode joining Housr, dreams are big, and ever-expanding both for the startup and its parent.
FAQs
What is StayAbode?
StayAbode is a provider of coliving spaces in Bangalore, which has a cluster of co-living spaces for rent, thoughtfully designed to create a positive impact on the way people live. Convenience and community are at the core of what StayAbode does, making city-living affordable and meaningful for its residents.
What is co-living?
Co-living is a modern way of living better together. It is an amalgamation of convenient, affordable city-living and inspiring community living. StayAbode has been designed to foster human interactions. With shared spaces, events and gatherings hosted every so often, the residents of the startup can indulge in a rich and engaging network of people, perspectives, and experiences.
How can I visit StayAbode properties?
You can set up a visit through the StayAbode website or give the team a call on 08061914619 to schedule a visit.
Why was StayAbode started?
Moving to a new city can be daunting and inconvenient. Over the last few years, it has become more challenging to find a convenient and fulfilling home on rent at an affordable cost. So, StayAbode decided to address this very issue with its beautiful, fully-furnished private homes with shared spaces, that add value to its residents’ lives at less costs.
What does a regular day for a StayAbode resident look like?
The StayAbode residents can wake up at their convenience, and have their homes cleaned spick and span by its housekeeping crew. They can then spend their day working or relaxing at home or at the StayAbode shared spaces designed to inspire and collaborate with the community. On a day when a social event has been planned, they can also indulge in some networking and meaningful conversations with other community members. Moreover, they can also head to their private rooms when slumber takes over. That’s the beauty of co-living at Abode. It’s a wonderful blend of personal and social life, under one roof.
What does the housekeeping staff of StayAbode take care of?
The well-trained housekeeping crew of StayAbode leaves the homes squeaky clean, 6 days a week. This includes dusting, mopping, cleaning the utensils, making the bed, and cleaning the washroom on alternate days.
What does the people that rent at StayAbode properties get?
The one-for-all rent of the people renting at StayAbode properties, is inclusive of the monthly rent, housekeeping services, WiFi, utility bills, and access to shared spaces and community events.
Are the StayAbode apartments furnished?
StayAbode homes are beautifully designed and fully furnished to match the lifestyle of everyone. They’re ready-to-move-in homes to make lives more convenient. So, you can just move in with your suitcase. StayAbode will have the rest covered.
Is StayAbode acquired?
Yes, StayAbode has been acquired by Housr, a hospitality company from Gurgaon that is founded by Deepak Anand and Kalpesh Mehta, on June 27, 2022.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Colive.
Given the increasing cost of property in metro cities, co-living is probably the most cost-effective way of living in urban areas without having to compromise on modern amenities. This is the reason why co-living spaces are getting popular, especially among youth. With the increasing number of youth moving out of their hometowns for studies or work, the concept of co-living is fast gaining popularity in India.
According to a Cushman & Wakefield India report, the Co-living market size across India’s top 30 cities is expected to grow more than double by 2025 to $13.92 billion from the current $ 6.67 billion. To meet this trend, Colive, a startup in Bangalore has come up with fully managed and technologically equipped rental co-living spaces, to make living comfortable, safe and affordable. Here is how Colive was started and how it is transforming urban housing in India. We interviewed Colive founder Suresh Rangarajan K to know about this fast-growing coliving startup.
Colive is a Bangalore-based co-living space provider. Colive offers ready-to-move-in co-living spaces, which are located near IT parks and business hubs. These homes are chic and equipped with modern tech-enabled safety features. Besides, all homes are fully serviced and professionally managed, and offers flexible and affordable options suitable for urban living. These co-living spaces are designed especially for single professionals & young couples who prefer living in a social community of like-minded millennials.
Colive is driven by the vision to get established as India’s No.1 Coliving brand offering technology-enabled, fully-managed homes for millennials & Gen Z in urban markets.
Colive USPs
Style
Modern Furnishing
Cinema and Sports Arena
Fitness and games room
Modern Storage Space
Self cooking equipment
Community kitchen
Safety
Facial recognition based key management
CCTV and Video Surveillance
Emergency response team.
Service
Professional House Keeping
High-Speed Internet
On Demand Maintenance Support
Power back-up
Savings
Affordable rentals
Flexi Lockin
Installment facility
Smart
Skype booth
Co-working space
Digital door locks
Social
Networking
Free holiday once a quarter
Invitation to exclusive events and parties.
“We launched Colive in Bangalore given the city’s universal appeal. Home to numerous IT companies, the capital of Karnataka a top destination for young working professionals who don’t have the capacity to rent a single sharing accommodation near their offices. Considering this factor, Bangalore seemed like the ideal place for Colive to begin its journey” The Colive CEO quotes.
Colive – Founder and Team
Suresh Rangarajan Kis the Founder and CEO of Colive.
Suresh Rangarajan K
Suresh Rangarajan K, Cofounder of Colive
Suresh Rangarajan K is an alumnus of Yale School of Management. He is a chartered accountant and serial entrepreneur. Prior to founding Colive, he was also a part of the founding team of TimesofMoney.com and Artha, a real estate enterprise. Under his enterprising leadership, remit2india.com went on to become the world’s #1 online money transfer portal & one of the most successful internet businesses in India.
Arun Singh was the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and Co-founder of Colive. Arun has worked in the Indian Equity Markets for over 2 decades, which provided him a ring-side view of the transformation of the Indian economy. His last stint was at Alchemy, a boutique equities brokerage firm focused on Institutional and Ultra HNI investors. He was also part of the founding team at a startup before embarking on his journey of curating emerging businesses to bootstrap in his individual capacity. Singh stepped down from his position in September 2021.
Saurav Swami is the VP of Alliances at Colive. Saurav looks after Corporate tie-ups and partners for built-to-suit coliving buildings.
Colive brought on board, Arun Balan of the Balan and Nambisan Architects to design the double sharing rooms, which are strategically styled with modular furniture to offer a sense of privacy even in a shared space. As commented by Colive CEO Suresh Rangarajan, Signature Towers will let the residents experience the comfort of their home with the splendor of a deluxe hotel.
The company works with an employee strength of 100-150 employees.
Colive – Startup Story
During his stint at Artha, Suresh realized that India’s real estate sector has great potential. He noticed the housing challenges being faced by the millennials in India, and to solve the same he started Colive. The idea behind Colive was simple – to offer an effective solution to urban India’s housing owes.
“Even though property prices have gone down in the last decade, affordable housing remains a myth in India. Renting a 2BHK flat in any metropolitan city is impossible for many, especially for those who have just begun their career. Realizing this gap, I decided to launch Colive which provides affordable, convenient, fully-amenitized and managed accommodations while taking a deposit of only 2-months’ worth of the respective rents, as opposed to the standard range of INR 60k- INR 1,00,000.” said Colive owner Suresh Rangarajan K on explaining the idea behind starting Colive.
Colive – Mission and Vision
The mission of Colive is to “offer Colive residents to upgrade lifestyle with chic designs and contemporary interiors, premium amenities, and hassle-free living.” With real-estate in its DNA, and driven by a customer-centric approach, Colive aims to build automated processes and leverage technology that will help in scaling the business.
Colive – Name, Tagline and Logo
The name Colive is derived from co-living. The company’s tagline- ‘Colive your way’ embodies the sense of co-living with the independence of living the way one wants to live and having the freedom to make their own life choices. Colive Community is a non-judgmental society that respects an individual’s life choices and celebrates their differences which is showcased in the logo people peacefully co-exist.
Colive has a full-stack business model and it provides its services directly to the end-users. Colive takes buildings on long-term contracts from builders and franchises. The buildings are transformed into branded and serviced co-living spaces and then rented out to customers.
Colive – Revenue Model
Colive has two sources of revenue–
Fixed rentals– Under this model, Colive makes an agreement with property owners to pay them a fixed sum. The amount of earning over and above this fixed sum is Colive’s revenue.
Property management fee– Under this model, the revenue earned from rent is shared between the property owner and Colive in a predetermined ratio. This ratio may vary from city to city.
Colive – Funding and Investors
Colive has raised total funding of $12 Million in 3 rounds. Here are the Colive funding details –
Funding Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
April 2019
Series A
$9.2 Million
Salarpuria Sattva Group
February 2018
Seed
$1.8 Million
Ncubate Capital Partners
September 2016
Seed
$1 Million
Angel Investors
Colive plans to utilize the funding to ramp up its operations and expand its footprint in India.
Colive is being mentored by Bijay Agarwal, MD Salarpuria Sattva Group.
Colive – Startup Challenges
According to Suresh, as the concept of co-living is new in India, Colive had a tough time convincing the stakeholders, who were skeptical about the success of the concept.
Speaking about the challenges that the team initially faced, Suresh Rangarajan K said, “Acquiring the first 1,000 beds was tedious but once that was done, we could pace up while scaling to 10,000 beds. The initial months, in particular, were difficult for us. However, we stuck to our original plan and got well acquainted with our primary target group – the millennials. And, it was only a matter of time before our extensive efforts started showing positive results”
Colive – Competitors
For Colive, competition ranges from a PG operator to the global player that provides rental accommodation. Top competitors of Colive are, Your Own ROOM, Stay Abode, Zolo, CoHo, NestAway, NoBroker, Grabhouse, Square Plums, SimplyGuest, Comfy Stays, OYO Living, Stanza Living, Quickr Homes and FF21.
Style, safety, services, social, smart and savings – These are the 6 factors that differentiate Colive from its rivals. From finding the perfect accommodation to having immediate access to amenities and availing services; everything at Colive is accessible at the touch of a button through Colive’s website and app.
Colive – Growth
Colive boasts of being the future of living. The technology-powered coliving startup has noticed a good scale-up indeed. Here are some highlights of the growth of Colive:
Colive is managing 25000+ beds.
The area under management for Colive is over 4 Million sq. ft.
Currently operating in 3+ cities including Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad.
Has AUM of Rs 200 crore+.
Colive has around an 85% occupancy rate.
In 2018, Colive generated a revenue of INR 11 Crore.
Colive launcheed premium property in Bangalore, strengthening its position in the luxury co-living segment
Leading Indian coliving space provider ‘Colive’ has announced the launch of a premium property – Colive Signature Towers. Signature Towers is located in Doddanekundi, on the Outer Ring Road, in proximity to corporate powerhouses and IT Hubs of Bangalore, on August 19, 2019.
The property is targeted at both young working professionals and DINK (Dual Income No Kids) couples and comprises 140 double sharing and single occupancy/couple rooms, consisting of 280 beds. The USP of Colive Signature Towers lies in its ergonomic design. The fully-furnished rooms have contemporary interiors and come with a wide range of lifestyle amenities. Colive Signature Towers is also equipped with a terrace lounge, star-gazing deck, barbecue, conference room, cafe, fitness room, gaming and entertainment lounge, amphitheater, cinema room and a salon/spa. The terrace barbecue and the cafe, in particular, are touted as the key attraction of Signature Towers. The security system for Signature Towers includes CCTV, digital locks, emergency response team, and facial recognition-based access system.
Colive declared first Saturday of June as the ‘International Co-living Day’ to celebrate the spirit of co-living
Colive announced in 2019 that the first Saturday of June is deemed to be the ‘International Co-living Day’. This initiative was taken by Colive to celebrate the idea of co-living, which is fast becoming popular among the Indian youth.
The first ‘International Co-living Day’ was celebrated by Colive at Marathahalli location in Bangalore on June 1, 2019. On this occasion, Colive hosted a memorable, fun-packed event, which was attended by a whole band of youths. The event was kick-started with the launch of Bangalore’s first co-living facility – ‘Colive Sunrise’. ‘Colive Sunrise’ is located at a prime location on the Outer Ring Road and is in proximity to the major IT parks in the city.
Delighted at the huge success of the event, Colive founder Suresh Rangarajan said that co-living is no longer just a new phenomenon, but has become a necessity.
Colive founder and CEOSuresh Rangarajan said emphasizing the idea behind the event.
Suresh was conferred upon the prestigious Udyog Rattan award and WCRC. Ernst & Young also awarded him as the “Trend Setter in Real Estate”. Besides, some other awards and recognition received by Colive are –
Rated among the ‘5 Indian Start-ups that helped millennials to go smarter in 2020’ – by Asian Age
Rated among the ‘5 most popular apps among millennials’ – by Hans India
‘Transforming the rental industry with the buy-to-let model‘ – says Deccan Herald
‘A Platform that can make everyday life efficient for the tech savvy’ – says Deccan Chronicle
Colive App among the ‘Mobile apps that are hot with Millennials’ – says The Financial Express
Ranked among the ‘From teen to adulthood these 5 Apps will become your saviour’ – by T3F5
Colive – Future Plans
Colive has launches lined up in Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai. It aims to scale up from the current count of 25,000 beds to 1 lakh beds, as of 2021. Colive is also planning to expand its presence to 25 university towns.
FAQs
What is Colive?
Colive is a network of fully-managed ready-to-move-in homes, conveniently located in close proximity to major IT Parks & business hubs. The homes are fully serviced and professionally managed while offering flexible & affordable options suitable for urban living.
What does co-living mean?
Coliving is a form of communal living that is popular in major cities as they are an affordable living solution for students, workers, people on a budget, or individuals who are relocating. The residents get a private bedroom in a furnished home but have to share certain common areas with other residents.
Are coliving spaces in Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai available via Colive?
Colive makes coliving spaces available in Hyderabad. Besides, getting coliving space in Pune, coliving space in Mumbai and in Bengaluru are also easier than ever before with Colive serving all those cities.
Where is the Colive headquarters?
The Colive headquarters are in Bangalore, which makes finding coliving space in Bangalore really easy now.
What is the co living business model for Colive?
Colive is a co living service provider, which extends a wide range of wonderful coliving spaces for everyone living in the common metros of India. Colive leverages the full-stack business model to grow, thereby providing the services to the end-users.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by NestAway.
The home rental has been a pretty rigid segment, particularly in India. Homeowners have qualms about hiring tenants and it’s not a smooth sail for the latter either. Unrealistic advance deposit demands, lack of proper amenities and facilities, and turbulent rental agreement fiasco are just some of the problems that hamper the entire process.
NestAway, a Bengaluru-based startup has identified this crisis and is now setting things right. This is a detailed article about NestAway, how the startup came into being, and how it is operating to simplify the process of finding rented accommodation.
January 19, 2021 – NestAway sold off the society and apartment management platform, ApnaComplex to Anarock Group within a year of its acquisition.
About NestAway
NestAway is a concept. It’s a solution. It’s fixing something that’s grossly wrong. Actually, it’s a concoction of the three. It is a new concept for homeowners, a solution for tenants, and it’s fixing the youth housing crisis in cities.
Founded in 2015, NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is headquartered in Karnataka. It is an online aggregator of fully furnished and well-maintained rooms and flats for rent. NestAway homes are present across 16 cities in India, including Bangalore, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, and Thane.
The app helps the users find, book, and move into a rental home of their choice across various Indian cities. One can move in, ask for services from tap leakage to broken door locks, pay rent, and finally move out. The Nestaway app is available for Android and iOS.
NestAway has also forayed into the co-living segment. In 2019, it officially announced the launch of its independent subsidiary, Hello World. Hello World, focuses on co-living and student housing and is present in 15 Indian cities. Hello World claims to have 10,000 beds and 90% occupancy rate. It will be led by NestAway co-founder Jitendra Jagadev.
NestAway was co-founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar, and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015. It was an aggregator of shared and furnished apartments for bachelors in the beginning before adding full homes for families in its catalog.
NestAway Founders
Amarendra Sahu
Amarendra Sahuis the CEO of NestAway. He is a Computer Science engineer from NIT Surathkal and has an MBA from IIM-B. Amarendra has past experience of working at Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Networks, and Cisco as a Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer after which he co-founded BrizzTV Media Labs Pvt Ltd. Sahu is now a Co-founder of BrizzTV along with serving as a Co-founder and CEO of NestAway.
Jitendra Jagadev
Jitendra Jagadev is currently known as the Co-founder and Board Member of NestAway and has earlier served as the COO of the startup. Hegraduated from NIT Karnataka and has previously worked with companies like Philips, Cisco, and Ojas Venture Partners, before joining the founding team of NestAway. Jagadev is also the CEO of Helloworld Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
Smruti Parida
Smruti Parida was the Co-founder of NestAway, and had also served as the CTO of the startup. Smruti is an IT graduate from NIT Karnataka. He was with Microsoft and United Online and worked as the Software Design Engineer and Program Manager 2 and Senior Software Engineer respectively before devoting himself to the company. Smruti quit NestAway on October 23, 2019. Smruti had also co-founded Zero Heights Technologies Pvt Ltd. previously and is currently working as a Founder at AutoSave.
Deepak Dhar
Deepak Dhar is an IT graduate from NIT Karnataka. Being a co-founder, Deepak was responsible for the product and user experience divisions at NestAway before leaving the startup in June 2019. Before joining NestAway, he worked with companies like Aceva Technologies, Fidelity Investments, and Royal Bank of Scotland. He also led Citruspay (acquired by PayU) as a Founding Member and Operations Head. Deepak Dhar quit Nestaway in June 2019 to startup a fintech venture but he will continue to be a director in the company. He co-founded Repute in October 2019.
NestAway owners Amrendra, Smruti, Deepak, and Jitendra are all serial entrepreneurs. Amrendra and Jitendra co-founded Brizztv, Deepak was a part of the founding team of Citrus Payment Solutions, and Smruti founded ‘Sen6’—an art marketplace. NestAway has anywhere between 200-500 employees, according to the latest records.
When Amarendra Sahu came to Bangalore in 2004, he had trouble finding a house to rent. Unmarried individuals are never the first choice of the house owners. Besides, renting in decent localities is not always reasonable.
Amarendra wanted to solve this problem and went about setting up NestAway with the help of friends. In June 2014, his friend Jitendra Jagadev’s house in Whitefield became the site of an experiment.
Amarendra recollects, “We took furnishing from Furlenco, took some pictures of the house, and posted it on Facebook. There were four beds in the 2 BHK – all sold in a day. Out of the seven girls who came to visit, six wanted it and four got it.”
This was the story behind NestAway’s inception which has established itself in a surprisingly short amount of time.
NestAway – Mission and Vision
Nestaway’s core vision is “to provide young people value-for-money spaces with convenient solutions and amenities.” The steering vision was to make living easy and hassle-free.
Nestaway is fueled with a mission to provide homes for everyone, without discrimination. The mission of the company was not just to find homes, but to help the youth set up in a new city without any hassles.
NestAway – Name, Tagline and Logo
With the onset of the new year 2022, NestAway has come up with a new tagline that goes “New Year, New Home.”
NestAway is India’s fastest growing “Home Rental Network” which provides better rental solutions via design and technology. The units are ready-to-walk in homes and with different schemes based on the tenant’s requirement—a bed, a room, or a complete house. From 1 BHK flats to 8 BHK luxury villas with state-of-the-art facilities, the company caters to all kinds of customer needs. Homescome with cot, mattress, sofa, TV, fridge, washing machine, and a furnished kitchen. Besides, fully furnished apartments, semi-furnished and unfurnished apartments are also listed on NestAway.
Some major USPs of NestAway are:
Guided house visits: Tenants are given a guided tour of the house they are interested in.
Rent on time: Ensures timely rent every month.
Zero paperwork: The company does all the paperwork such as agreement creation.
House safety: The company ensures that the house stays in good condition.
House maintenance: It provides on-demand and periodic house repairs. By subscribing to NestAway Assure, house owners can avail the facility of 100% free maintenance, cleaning, and repairing services.
Marketing and promotion: It promotes the properties registered with it through ads and other rental platforms.
Easy move-in and move-out policy: NestAway allows easy move-in and move-out facilities to tenants. Tenants can simply visit the website or use the app and schedule move-in or move-out dates according to their convenience. The move-out policy allows tenants to leave before the license end date. They can shift to the new house by notifying just two days before the planned move-in date.
Zero Deposit: NestAway has tied up with agencies to provide zero deposit offers, whereby tenants can move in by paying the booking amount without any advance deposit.
Pet-friendly: It allows animal lovers to find pet-friendly homes.
Open guest-hosting policy: It allows tenants to host guests responsibly without causing inconvenience to fellow tenants.
The lock-in period is of 6 months. Unless mentioned otherwise in the agreement, the minimum stay is 6 months. However, this may vary in different cities. NestAway does not impose any move-out charges. However, if a person moves out before completion of the lock-in period, he has to pay one month’s rent as move-out charges.
The rent is determined considering the given factors:
Area and location of the house.
Tenancy type, i.e whether a full house, a room, or a bed is taken for rent.
Condition of the house.
Size of the house.
The best part for the homeowners is that the company ensures that the rent is paid before the 5th of every month.
NestAway has a sound business model. It is a one-stop service provider for tenants and house owners where neither has to pay any brokerage fee.
The company serves as a broker and property manager for homeowners by helping find tenants, collect rent, and manage the property over its lifetime in exchange for a percentage share of the rental stream.
Amarendra explains the business model, “You can rent just a room, or the whole house. Our area manager will arrange the visit according to your preference. Once you are satisfied with the house, you can book it online. If you stay in the house for three days and don’t like it for any reason, we refund with full deposit. NestAway’s popularity grew mainly through word-of-mouth, with digital marketing spend in the early days being less than 10 percent of total expenses.”
NestAway runs on a very simple revenue model. It manages a homeowner’s rental property throughout the rental life cycle, from showing the house to a prospective tenant and closing the rental agreement, to collecting rent on the owner’s behalf and assisting the tenant and owner during move-out.
For all these services, the company charges the owners a fixed percentage of 12.5% of the total rent generated from the home as its commission. NestAway does not charge any brokerage or charges from the tenants apart from rent
NestAway Technologies has raised over $109.1 Million in funding from 9 rounds of funding it saw to date. In the latest round, it raised a funding of $4.70 Million from Goldman Sachs on September 17, 2019.
Date
Stage
Funding Amount
Investors
September 17, 2019
Series D
$4.70 Million
Goldman Sachs
May 13, 2019
Series D
$10 Million
Tiger Global Management & Chiratae Ventures
October 17, 2018
Venture
Undisclosed
InnoVen Capital
August 7, 2018
Venture
Undisclosed
Epiq Capital
March 1, 2018
Series D
$51 Million
Goldman Sachs
April 15, 2016
Series C
$30 Million
Tiger Global Management
February 28, 2016
Venture
Undisclosed
Ratan Tata
July 21, 2015
Series B
$12 Million
Flipkart, Tiger Global Management
March 16, 2015
Seed
$1.2 Million
Undisclosed
Flipkart, Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, Goldman Sachs, InnoVen Capital, Epiq Capital, Chiratae Ventures are some of the Investors in NestAway. Also, NestAway is in talks with multiple investors including Fosun International and Shunwei capital for $100 Million that it might be seeing ahead.
According to Wikipedia, NestAway registered lower growth in revenue in 2017-2018 as compared to 2016-2017. Its revenue increased by 533% in 2016-2017 whereas, in 2017-2018, it increased by only 28.7%. As per ROC filing, its revenue from operation in FY 2018 is Rs 46.98 crores. Again, the losses increased from Rs 134.24 crore in 2016-2017 to Rs 203.79 crore in 2017-2018.
The company claimed to earn $2 million worth of revenue each month, as of 2019’s reports.
NestAway – Growth/Valuation
NestAway is currently present in over 16 Indian major cities, as of September 2020. It is managing over 60,000 homes across the country. Over 10,600 house owners and 72,400 tenants are registered with it. About 40% of the new bookings now come from the family segment with the ratio being at 65:35 for shared versus family rental houses.
In Bengaluru, where typically rental advances are of 10 months, the company offers homes on two-month deposits. The company claims to earn a monthly revenue of around $2 Million. NestAway gets a commission of 12.5% in each rental agreement.
After a Series D funding of $51 million raised in March 2018, NestAway’s valuation was at about $200 million. It raised two more rounds of funding after that. However, the exact net worth or valuation has not been confirmed by the company.
In 2019, NestAway ventured into the co-living and student housing segment by launching a new brand, ‘Hello World‘. ‘Hello World’ which began in May 2019, currently has a capacity of around 10,000 beds and is operational in 16 cities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Pune, Kota, and Dehradun. The startup boasts 90% occupancy rates. Hello World charges zero brokerage and one-month rent for a security deposit. NestAway has plans to introduce ‘Hello World’ in nine more cities, thus increasing the number of beds to over 50,000.
In the wake of COVID-19, Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway has taken a host of measures to support its users and property owners. To start with, the company has reduced the onboarding charges by 50% for anyone who had planned to move into Nestaway’s properties before the lockdown was put in place.
Also, Nestaway is allowing all the frontline workers to stay at its properties with 100% off on onboarding charges. For property-owners, which are tied-up for more than two years, the startup has set up an INR 50 Lakh fund to support them in these hard times.
For migrants struck in Kota, Nestaway has provided free stay and food under the ‘Hello World’ initiative. More than 30 migrants and 30 healthcare staff have lived at Hello World’s properties since the COVID-19 outbreak. One building in Kota has been dedicated to healthcare staff with food and basic facilities. Furthermore, NestAway has also extended canteen services for doctors and guards and hostel managers.
NestAway – Partners
NestAway uses Localitics, a real estate statistical data science platform that not only predicts where rental demand is going to grow, but also where new houses are going to spring up. Today, Localitics is used for evaluating all the cities in India where the company is present and churns out data to help them target the next set of cities.
NestAway has acquired 3 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was StayAbode on Mar 2, 2020. However, it has later sold ApnaComplex, which makes the proptech startup the owner of the 2 other companies, Zanify and StayAbode.
It acquired a smaller rival Zenify (City Synapse Information Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount in May 2017. This move will help them expand their offerings for families.
In February 2020, the company acquired the apartment management platform ApnaComplex. ApnaComplex is a 10-year-old startup and the platform offers tools to manage various aspects of the residential complexes like organizing public events, raising complaints, society billing/accounting, and much more. The company will now provide home services like cleaning, painting, pest control services, etc. to the registered users of ApnaComplex. However, within a year of its acquisition, the proptech startup decided to let ApnaComplex be acquired by Anarock on January 19, 2021.
Acquiree Name
Acquired Date
Price
StayAbode
March 2, 2020
–
ApnaComplex
February 13, 2020
–
Zanify
May 7, 2017
–
NestAway – Challenges
One of the major challenges for the company was finding the right investors because it was the first business in this arena and some skepticism. Now, it is one of the highest funded Indian startups.
In the initial stage, earning the house owner’s trust and convincing them to register was difficult. To solve this issue, it started offering a ‘rental default guarantee’ that guaranteed NestAway paying the house owner rent in case the tenant did not pay on time.
Some house owners don’t consent to give their house for rent with two months’ rent as deposit money and expect more. However, this scenario has been bettered with the arrival of NestAway where the users need to pay two months’ rent as the tenant and the company pays the difference.
NestAway – Competitors
There are many companies and websites like this that list properties for rent. The Major competitors of NestAway are:
What sets NestAway apart from its rivals is that it provides end-to-end solutions to tenants and house owners by taking care of everything—creating the rent agreement, rent collection, house maintenance, etc. In short, it mediates throughout the rental life cycle.
NestAway – Awards and Achievements
NestAway has been conferred upon a list of awards and recognitions throughout the years. One of the proudest moments for NestAway was when the founders of the company achieved the Comeback Kid Award on August 18, 2017.
NestAway – Future Plans
NestAway is planning to introduce ‘Smart Homes’ by launching the Smart Lock service for all homes. Smart Lock is a safety locking system that ensures security for people staying in their homes, especially for women. This service will be available on their app for both Android and iOS devices. The company is planning to venture into the women’s housing and senior housing sector by 2020.
Another area of focus for NestAway will be student housing. With 10.4 million migrant students and only 6.1 million beds as the current official supply, there is an increase in demand for student housing which continues to increase day by day. Cashing in on this opportunity, it is strongly focusing on student housing and aims to start operations in Kota (Rajasthan) followed by Delhi (North Campus), and Bangalore. NestAway is also looking to expand PAN India and conversations are going on with progressive builders for exclusive properties earmarked for students.
The brand continues to concentrate on the concept of co-living, wherein it takes up the entire building including the shared facilities such as gym, libraries, common areas, game room, and others. Through this concept, NestAway Technologies is trying to create a community for members with common interests to engage in yoga/salsa classes, have talk sessions from seasoned entrepreneurs/sportspersons, entrepreneurial knowledge sharing meets, and collaborate on other exciting avenues.
NestAway – FAQs
Who are the Founders/Owner of NestAway?
NestAway was co-founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar, and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015.
What is NestAway?
NestAway is an online aggregator of fully furnished and well-maintained rooms and flats for rent. NestAway homes are present across 16 cities in India, including Bangalore, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, and Thane.
Who is the CEO of NestAway?
Nestaway CEO and Co-founder is Amarendra Sahu.
Who are the Top Investors of NestAway?
Flipkart, Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, Goldman Sachs, InnoVen Capital, Epiq Capital, Chiratae Ventures are the Investors in NestAway.
How much Funding did NestAway raise till date?
NestAway Technologies has raised over $109.1 Million in funding from 9 rounds. In the latest round, it raised funding of $4.7 Million from Goldman Sachs in September 2019.
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.” – Ratan Tata, Tata Group
Ratan Tata is a prolific investor and has made numerous investment in many Startups. His style of investment and funding are revered by many across the globe. And his investments are known to emerge as giants in their respective sectors with time. Ola Cabs is an example.
An investment from Ratan Tata gives a boost to startups in terms of publicity, acquiring finances, and brand-building. Here is a list of the startups that Ratan Tata has funded over the years. Consequently, the behemoth organization of Ratan tata – Tata Group has also infiltrated a number of markets such as telecom, software, groceries, and fashion.
Latest News
22 April, 2021 – Ratan Tata has recently made an undisclosed amount of investment in Mailit which is a Mumbai based logistics startup serving a lot of big corporates including Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, etc.
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The Recent investment by Ratan Tata was in 2021, as he invested in Mailit, a technology-driven mailroom management and logistics company. The terms of the investment are undisclosed but it comes at at a time when Mailit is planning to launch 500 mailrooms across India in addition to establishing fully mechanised warehouses and distribution centres in the next five years.
Tork Motors
Tork motors | Ratan Tata Investment
Tork Motors is a Pune-based electric motorcycle startup. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in Tork Motors in October 2019. He saw potential in the company and found the team to be commendable. Apart from Ratan Tata, Bharat Forge and Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola Cabs’ founder) have also invested in Tork Motors.
Snapdeal
Snapdeal | Ratan Tata Investment
Snapdeal is India’s first online marketplace for multiple categories. It has received funding from Ebay and Alibaba. Snapdeal was launched by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in February 2010. It has over 3 lakh sellers and hosts over 3 crore products across 800+ diverse categories from more than 1,25,000 regional, national, and international brands and retailers.
Ratan Tata made an investment in Snapdeal soon after Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra. He bought 256 shares from the e-commerce venture’s angel investors. This move not only protected Snapdeal from losing market share but also prevented any potential attempt by Flipkart to monopolize the e-commerce segment.
Cure.fit is a health and fitness startup that has raised $170 million from investors like Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures, and Ratan Tata to date.
Cure.fit maintains a chain of fitness centers (under the ‘Cult.fit’ brand), a food delivery platform called ‘Eat.fit’, a chain of healthcare clinics called ‘Care.fit’, and the recently launched online mental-wellness platform called ‘Mind.fit’.
Paytm started out as a mobile recharging platform and later became an online marketplace for multiple categories. It became India’s first payment bank after receiving a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Ratan Tata Made an investment in Paytm by raising a funding of INR 1 crore in March 2015 for One97 Communications – the parent company of Paytm. This funding fetched him the position of a business advisor on One97 Communications’ board.
Paytm is now among the most successful digital payment companies with millions of subscribers. It thrived when the demonetization scheme was implemented in India in November 2018. At present, the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV) is over $1 billion.
Ola is India’s first home-grown cab aggregator service and one of the nine Indian unicorn startups valued at $5 billion. The app allows users to book a taxi on their smartphone at the best fares. Ola provides cab services across price segments that range from economy to luxury.
Ratan Tata funded Ola in July 2015, 5 years after the company began its operations in 2010. He invested INR 95 lakhs in the company in personal capacity. Ratan Tata made also an investment through his investment company – RNT Capital Advisors – of INR 400 crores in Ola.
Repos Energy
Repos Energy | Ratan Tata Investment
Aditi Bhosale Walunj and Chetan Walunj founded Repos Energy. Repos Energy is a Pune-based startup responsible for the doorstep delivery of fuel to industries. It works using cloud-based technology and IoT devices. Customers can order diesel on the Repos app. A Repos petrol pump operator then arrives at the customer’s location and completes the diesel delivery. Ratan Tata made an undisclosed amount of investment in this startup.
ClimaCell
Climacell | Ratan Tata Funded Startup
ClimaCell is an app developed by Rei Goffer, Shimon Elkabetz, and Itai Zlotnik that provides accurate weather forecast to alert people about upcoming floods. It uses day-to-day devices as environmental sensors. ClimaCell focuses on error-free weather predictions and has garnered a lot of attention.
Ratan Tata participated in ClimaCell’s seed round funding in September 2016. ClimaCell has acquired $70 million over three rounds of funding.
Abra
Abra Logo | Ratan Tata Investment
Ratan Tata has also made an investment in a Silicon Valley based bitcoin startup with American Express where he with American Express invested $12 million in Abra. People can store digital cash and send money to any smartphone using Abra’s app. Abra earns money when users buy or sell digital currency through its app.
CarDekho
CarDekho Logo | Ratan tata Funded Startups
CarDekho is India’s leading car search venture that helps users purchase the right cars. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in GirnarSoft – the parent company of CarDekho, BikeDekho, and PriceDekho portals.
The CarDekho app has rich automotive content that includes expert reviews, detailed specs and prices, comparisons, and the visuals of the different car brands and models available in India.
The company deals with many automobile manufacturers, more than 4000 car dealers, and numerous financial institutions to facilitate the purchase of vehicles. The CarDekho portal accounts for about 30% of the automobile manufacturers’ combined annual sales today.
Holachef
Hola Chef | Ratan tata Funded Startups
Holachef was founded by Saxena and Anil Gelra in 2014. Holachef connects expert chefs with consumers via its website and mobile app (available for both Android and iOS platforms). The platform offers a new menu everyday and delivers food in a state-of-the-art packaging. Holachef received an undisclosed amount of investment from Ratan Tata in September 2015.
Ola-owned food delivery firm Foodpanda has acquired Holachef.
FirstCry is a baby care e-commerce platform. FirstCry is owned by BrainBees Solutions. It follows an omni-channel strategy of selling through online and offline stores. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in this startup in January 2016.
Lenskart
Lenskart Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startup
Lenskart is a popular online retailer for eyewear. It was also been added to the list of companies invested by Tata as it secured funding from Ratan Tata in April 2016; the amount is undisclosed.
Lenskart sells sunglasses, eye glasses, contact lenses, and more. The officials from Lenskart said that Ratan Tata’s role was more of a mentor and an advisor than a financial investor. Some of the investors in Lenskart are TPG Group, IDG Ventures India, and Unilazer Ventures founder Ronnie Screwvala.
NestAway
nestaway logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
NestAway allows users to find, book, and move-in to a rental home of their choice across Indian cities. NestAway’s aim is to provide better rental solutions with the help of design and technology. The company presently caters to more than 35,000 tenants and 16,000 owners, providing homes to over 7000 families in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and others. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in December 2017.
Urban Ladder is an online furniture seller. Urban Ladder was founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in July 2012. It currently offers over 1,000 products across 25 furniture categories such as wardrobes, beds, sofas, dining tables, and coffee tables. The online retailer secured funding from Ratan Tata in November 2015.
UrbanCompany
Urban Company Logo
UrbanCompany, previously known as UrbanClap, is a local services marketplace that raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata in December 2015. It is also funded by Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.
The UrbanCompany app allows the online booking of services such as plumbing, electric work, beauty treatments, and salon. UrbanCompany has successfully penetrated the services sector and bridged the gap between workers and consumers. People can now easily overcome the challenges of household hurdles, troubles, fixtures, and anything related through UrbanCompany.
GOQii
Goqii Logo | Ratan tata funded Startups
GOQii makes healthcare watches that are similar to smart watches. It also makes GOQii Stride, a device people can attach to their shoes and keep track of the number of steps, etc. GOQii’s platform provides tools for real-time personalized coaching, scheduling health check-ups, and securing information in a health locker. GOQii was founded in 2014 by Vishal Gondal. It joined the list of Ratan Tata-backed startups after he invested an undisclosed amount in October 2016.
This might come across as an interesting trivia—Ratan Tata is the first Indian to buy a stake in Xiaomiandhe has also made an undisclosed amount of investment in the company. Xiaomi is the world’s fourth largest smartphone manufacturer and is based out of China. The brand is very popular in India. It entered the Indian market in 2014. The Chinese tech giant sells smartphones, laptops, air purifiers, tablets, LED TVs, fitness bands and more.
Some senior executives from Xiaomi were quoted saying that they would seek Ratan Tata’s advice on how to expand globally.
Lybrate
Lybrate Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
Lybrate was founded in 2013. It connects patients and doctors. Lybrate launched an online lab testing facility in May 2016. A patient’s sample is collected right from his or her home and the results are then shared online. Lybrate secured about INR 64.8 crores ($10.2 million) funding from Ratan Tata in July 2019.
Infinite Analytics is a U.S. and Mumbai-based startup founded by two MITians – Akash Bhatia and Purushotam Bolta. It became Microsoft Dynamics AX’s first global OEM partner four months after Ratan Tata has also made an investment in this startup in August 2015.
Infinite Analytics is a cloud-based big data startup that predicts consumer behavior based on information shared by users on social networking sites. Infinite Analytics analyses raw data, maps out a person’s social genome, and then gives personalized recommendations to consumer brands with online presence. This information, which is collected without breaking privacy laws, allows a retailer to identify and recommend products that will appeal to customers. Infinite Analytics has expanded its predictive analytics technology to verticals beyond retail and e-commerce.
CashKaro
Cashkaro Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
CashKaro is a cashback and coupons website that provides 30% cashback to customers who shop on its affiliates’ platforms. These platforms include Amazon, Paytm, Jabong, and ShopClues. The Gurgaon-based company was founded by Swati and Rohan Bhargava in 2013 and raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from Ratan Tata in January 2016.
Cashkaro generates revenue by taking commission from retailers and sharing a portion of it with customers in the form of cashback. It is the largest cashback website in India with over 10 lakh registered users and has given net cashback of more than INR 30 crores.
DogSpot
Dogspot Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startups
DogSpot is a Gurgaon-based online pet care platform that handles about 60,000 orders on a monthly basis with an average basket size of INR 1,700. DogSpot also promotes pet-centric events, drives, and related content. The startup was founded in 2007 and is run by PetsGlam Services Pvt. Ltd.
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in his personal capacity in DogSpot in January 2016. Ronnie Screwvala also invested in DogSpot alongside Ratan Tata.
BlueStone
Bluestone Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startups
Bluestone.com is an online platform for purchasing jewelry. BlueStone was founded by Gaurav Singh Kushwaha in 2011. BlueStone is backed by Ratan Tata and has also received a funding from him in 2014. It offers over 5,000 jewelry designs and plans to scale to 30,000 designs in the next three years.
Zivame
Zivame Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startup
Bangalore-based Zivame was founded in 2011 by Richa Kar and Kapil Karekar. Zivame is an online platform for one’s lingerie needs. It has raised $48 million in four years. The startup gained popularity through its quirky campaigns and is a well-known name today. Zivame received funding from Ratan Tata in September 2015.
Generic Aadhaar
Generic Aadhaar | Ratan Tata funded Startup
Ratan Tata has invested undisclosed amount in Generic Aadhaar, a Maharashtra-based pharmaceutical startup. Arjun Deshpande founded Generic Aadhaar in 2018. Generic Aadhaar provides generic medicines from reputed pharmaceutical companies at discounted rates—up to 80% cheaper than the retail price. It offers a catalog comprising branded, generic, homeopathy, and Ayurveda medicines from government-approved manufacturing facilities.
Generic Aadhaar aims to partner with 1000 pharmacies through a franchisee model in the coming months and expand its reach to places like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
What are the names of some Ratan Tata funded startups?
Some startups funded by Ratan Tata are Ola cabs, Zivame, Paytm, Snapdeal, Xiaomi, Urban Ladder, UrbanCompany, Cash Karo, and Abra.
What sector does Ratan Tata like to fund in?
Ratan Tata does not prefer any specific sectors. He has funded startups in sectors ranging from e-commerce and real estate to electric mobility and food delivery.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by CoHo.
Migration has considerably increased both within the country and abroad. The reasons for the same are many but the most prominent being, in search of employment options and education. Moving to a new place breaks the monotony and unravels a whole new world. However, finding the right place to live in a new city, is a difficult task indeed. Nevertheless, CoHo has got that covered.
CoHo is a Gurugram based startup that provides the best Co-living option specially designed to accommodate the Millenials’ needs and aspirations.
CoHo is a tech-enabled platform pioneering the concept of co-living spaces in India with its managed apartments and villas for a hassle-free living experience for millennials. The company provides ready-to-move-in shared accommodations on a rental basis for young professionals and students in India. CoHo is currently operational in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Bangalore.
CoHo co-living spaces come with all services for hassle-free living like housekeeping, WiFi, DTH Cable, repairs & maintenance, etc. Besides these, there are provisions for self-help amenities like Smart Locks, fully-automatic washing machines for laundry, ironing facilities, microwave and induction oven, fridge, tea/coffee machine, etc. The online concierge in the resident app makes sure everyone has a smooth stay at CoHo.
Coho Logo
CoHo has these 3Cs as its DNA –
Comfort – ready to use premium accommodations for a comfortable stay.
Convenience – forget about repair, maintenance, housekeeping, internet or power woes. CoHo will take care of it.
Community – You no longer need to feel lonely in a new city. Enjoy recreational lounges, fun filled events and sessions with like minded residents and be a part of the CoHo community.
The core belief of the team is to transform the way millennials are living today in tier 1 & 2 cities across India. The USPs that CoHo boasts of are its young and vibrant community and the technology it uses to make the residents stay in CoHo delightful.
CoHocommunity engagements are something which every resident looks forward to during their stay at CoHo. CoHo organizes various events, sessions and meet-ups for the residents, so that there’s no dull moment after work, holidays or on weekends. Community events act as another platform for young professionals & students living in the CoHo ecosystem to interact and engage with each other.
CoHo believes in heavily leveraging technology to ensure a smooth stay for its residents. CoHo Resident App acts as a one stop solution for all day-to-day engagement like customer on-boarding, fee payment, complaint redressal, privileged offers, community engagement, rating experience etc. Besides, technology forms the strong backbone of all back-end processes for efficient rapid scale-up. Both technology and community engagement in each CoHo space has been key to growing CoHo’s community both emotionally and culturally.
CoHo Residents can also avail a host of offers from their brand partners like Zomato, Beer Cafe, Max Healthcare, Fitso, Shuttl, VLCC etc.
“There’s TV and DTH connection, high speed Wi-Fi, a pool table, a foosball table, mini golf, PS3 and regular housekeeping and maintenance, so I’d say the decor and amenities clearly set CoHo apart from hostels or PGs. The look and feel of the space is young, vibrant and energetic. Patterns in the wall paint, theme-based posters, wall arts and quirky cushion covers everywhere.”
One has to opt for a meal plan that includes daily dinner and lunch only on weekends, as most of CoHo’s residents are young professionals who are rarely in for lunch. They have over 30 meals and the food is prepared by a professional chef provided by a third-party vendor. The CoHo team sets the basic menu, but it’s altered according to the preference of the residents. Regularly, the CoHo team reaches out to residents through the app seeking for their inputs and preferences. Based on the feedback, the menu is altered frequently to ensure the residents’ palate stays happy.
The 150 million urban residents that it is poised to add over the next 15 years will make India the “trailblazer” of co-living in Asia-Pacific.
“Younger generations, fast evolving consumer trends, and the potential scalability of the (Indian) market is a real drawcard for startups and developers looking to enter the (co-living) market,” a JLL report added.
There are 45+ Million millennials (Age group of 18 to 32) who are living in cities with high inward migration. The market size is currently pegged at approx. $93 Billion. The industry has recently picked up pace and will thrive in the coming 5 years with more players and capital coming to this industry.
Founders of CoHo and team
Uday Lakkar and Amber Sajid are the Founders of CoHo.
Uday Lakkar and Amber Sajid
Uday Lakkar is thefounder & CEOof CoHo. He is an An IIM-Ahmedabad alumni, who worked as an investment professional, consultant and financial analyst across organizations like McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Ireo, Capital18 and EXL Service. His first venture, Zocalo.in, that went on to become one of the most successful broker-free listing platforms for PGs, hostels, shared apartments has equipped him the right knowledge that allowed him to drive CoHo towards leading position in the co-living space.
Amber Sajid is the Co-founder of CoHo. He has 20+ experience in Real Estate with Ireo, DLF and Barista before taking up Business Development at CoHo.
Currently CoHo has a team of 100+ people across functions of Technology, Sales, Marketing, Design, Operations & Facility Management.
How was CoHo Started
Uday launched Zocalo.in in 2014, which was a marketplace model for finding rental accommodations broker-free. While running Zocalo, Uday saw the actual and substandard quality of the spaces which are available for millenials. Uday realized that there is huge room for improvement in this segment which led to the pivot towards CoHo.
CoHo was launched in 2015-end. Uday shares several instances like that of his friends from IIM-A struggling to find an accommodation in India’s largest metro city for more than a couple of months simply because of discrimination based on community background; another instance that he recollects was when he was shunned from entering so many residential societies in Gurgaon simply because he wanted to stay with his other bachelor friends from McKinsey.
Even now we see notice boards saying “Bachelors and Dogs are not allowed here“. We feel that the overall quality of youth accommodations (for students and working professionals) in India is in an abysmal state with inconsistent services, poor infrastructure and no technology whatsoever.
There is a crying need for a trusted brand with promise of consistent services at affordable price points in long stay accommodations segment and the team at CoHo is trying to create exactly that, and the response from the market they have received till now has been a testimony to the same.
CoHo – Business Model and Revenue Model
The CoHo business model runs on an asset light model. The company takes assets for long lease, then add its signature furniture, design, décor and rent it out to individual millennials for long stay. Residents pay a monthly fee which includes all the furniture, appliances, recreational amenities, housekeeping services, WiFi, repairs & maintenance etc. Typical double sharing room in CoHo ranges from INR 10,000 to 16,000 across different locations.
CoHo – Funding & Investors
The CoHo funding has raised more than $3 Million in two rounds till date.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
January 2019
Venture Round
–
AdvantEdge Founders
April 2016
Angel Round
–
Calcutta Angels
CoHo – User Acquisition
Coho relied upon their previous company Zocalo as a starting point to acquire the first few customers and it helped them immensely to have a smooth take off. In their process of user acquisition, referrals played a huge role on Day 1 and even today.
Major challenges faced are in terms of spreading awareness of the concept and trust building given that this industry suffers from deficit of trust over time and unprofessional approach from the brokers and service-providers alike. The problem is a bit more pronounced in markets like Delhi NCR in particular, which are huge in size yet quite an unprofessional market overall, leading to dissonance among young customers. CoHo is trying to exactly address this trust deficit issue by creating a trusted brand that promises and delivers high quality services & experience to its residents consistently given that this is typically a high-touch experience product and not an impulsive purchase for the user.
CoHo – Competitors
NestAway, StayAbode, Zolo and Colive are some major competitors of CoHo. Again, a huge segment of the market is still dominated by the traditional hostels or PGs, or youngsters taking apartments together in the absence of a systematic co-living space brand in India.
CoHo – Growth
At present, CoHo has expanded from Delhi NCR to Bengaluru. Along with this, CoHo caters to institutes like IIT Delhi, Pearl Academy, Indian School of Hospitality, Max Hospital directly as B2B partners.
Coho has been covered extensively by leading news agencies like CNBC, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The times of India, The Telegraph, Fortune, Business Standard, India Today, The Hindu and others.
It has also established B2B partnership with leading brands like Pizza Hut, Beer Café, Foodpanda, LensKart, Shuttl, InnerChef, Sutra pub, VanityCube etc.
Over the recent year and a half, CoHo has witnessed a 5x growth to 3,000+ beds with INR 24 Cr annualized revenue run-rate across Delhi NCR & Bangalore. They are now looking to rapidly scale to a pan-India level with 25,000+ beds in the next 12-15 months by building on the waitlist for consumers and deep data driven understanding of the millennial lifestyle.
The CoHo company also intends to expand to Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other Tier I cities of India soon.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
Who is the Founders of CoHo?
The CoHo Founders are Uday Lakkar and Amber Sajid.
How expensive is CoHo?
Typical double sharing room in CoHo ranges from INR 10,000 to 16,000 across different locations.
Where is CoHo operational?
At present, CoHo is operational in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru but intends to expand to Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other Tier I cities of India soon.
Moving away from the hometowns to settle in big cities can be difficult. On top of that finding a good place to stay can be quite a daunting task. With limited facilities in college and university hostels, there is a need for budget accommodation within the vicinity. Also, the nightmare of dealing with a landlord after shelling out a fortune for an apartment can be intimidating.
But quality accommodation and housing segment for students as well as professionals is being explored widely in the metro cities. The trend that is catching on the millennials is – Co-living spaces. It allows youngsters not only to share residences with like-minded tenants but also offers amenities like Wi-Fi, furniture, furnishings and appliances without burning a hole in the pocket.
Founded in January 2015, NestAway was the first to tap in the then unstructured and fragmented space of shared housing rentals. It offers shared rooms, private rooms as well as full houses both non-furnished/furnished for affordable prices and zero brokerage. The startup has a huge team—500 members in all, catering to customers who are primarily in the 22-30 age category. NestAway received funds from total 13 investors including Ratan Tata, Flipkart, IDG Ventures.
The Delhi-based housing platform aims to provide a professionally managed accommodation and co-living residences to both boys and girls. 24/7 open kitchen to common lounges with TV to football to fun-filled weekend activities, stanza living has definitely made living away from home easier. Also, they provide discounts and offers at various restaurants through Stanza Social. Its monthly rentals range from Rs 7,000 to Rs 20,000. Stanza Living has 15,000 beds at present. The startup aims to have 100,000 beds registered under its domain by 2021. Stanza Living received funds from Sequoia Capital, Accel and Matrix Partners.
CoHo is one of the country’s first co-living spaces was founded in late 2015. It offers fully furnished accommodation on a sharing and individual basis with amenities such as hot food, wifi, laundry services, 24/7 security, along with access to common spaces such as lounges, games and reading rooms and special events such as poker nights. All this without any security deposit, brokerage or furnishing costs.
CoHo raised funds from veterans like Sachin Bhatia (Co-founder, MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly), Rajesh Sawhney (Co-Founder, GSF and InnerChef), Mahesh Parasuraman (Ex-MD, Carlyle PE), Dheeraj Jain (Partner, UK based Hedge fund), amongst others.
Your Space is founded in 2016 by Karan and Shubha discussed the idea with Nidhi Kumra. YourSpace offers 1,200 beds in 11 hostels across India and charges between Rs 12,000 and Rs 25,000 per bed on a monthly basis, depending on the city and location.
It currently operates in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Pune, Noida and Greater Noida. YourSpace provides safety, security, air conditioning, WiFi, furniture and bedding, medical aid, gym facilities, walk-in closets, and personal washroom. Your-Space has so far raised $1 million fund from angel investor and HNIs.
Bengaluru-based Zolo promises a hassle free co-living. Zolo is founded by Nikhil Sikri, Akhil Sikri and Sneha Choudhry. Their facilities include fully furnished rooms, hygienic and healthy food, daily housekeeping, internet facilities, security etc.
The cost of the bed comes to an average of Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month for twin-sharing rooms. The company has 600 employees spread across five cities and 18,000 beds.
StayAbode
StayAbode
StayAbode is founded in 2016 by Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya. Bengaluru-based StayAdobe claims to have over 300 beds across five properties in South Bangalore with monthly rents ranging from Rs 12,500 to 35,000, depending on the type of property. A three-month deposit is payable by the tenant which is significantly lower than the usual norm in the city of 10- month deposit.
SimplyGuest is founded by Subbu and Ambareesha Athikunte and Mayank Pokharna. SimplyGuest is a platform accommodation catering to working professionals which offers fully furnished 1 bhk, 2 bhk, 3 bhk flat on an individual or sharing basis, without brokerage and only two months deposit.
It has close to 120 beds in private flats and another 27 in its hostel. The facilities provided by this platform include- a rent that comprises of electricity, water, 30-100 mbps WiFi, DTH, domestic help, repairs and maintenance, and unlimited LPG.
Placio
Placio
Placio is founded by Rohit Pateria, Ankush Arora and Atul Kumar Singh in March 2016. Noida-based housing platform offers fully furnished private and shared accommodation for students with comfortable and affordable living solutions ranging from basic budget to high-end luxury accommodation with pool/table tennis, playstation, book exchange counters and other facilities. Currently present in six cities, Placio has over 3,000 beds. Placio charges tariff ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 24,000 per bed, per person, per month.
Oyo Life is launched in October 2018 offering fully managed independent residential units, inclusive of contracting, furnishing, cleaning, maintenance, and in-stay services. Oyo Life has more than 10,000 beds signed and over 6,000 live beds and is adding over 1000 new beds every month.
Oyo Life provides essential amenities such as Wi-Fi connectivity, television, regular housekeeping, power backup, CCTV surveillance, and 24/7 caretaking. It charges rents starting from Rs 5999.
Oxfordcaps
Oxfordcaps
Founded by Annu Talreja, Priyanka Gera in 2017, Oxfordcaps provides technology-driven living experience to students in India and Singapore. Oxfordcaps provides a custom designed and standardized student housing product with a full-stack model of services and amenities.
It offers room on twin and triple sharing basis ranging between Rs 12,500 and Rs 19,000 per month. Currently, around 3,500 beds are operational by Oxfordcaps. It received funds from 500 STARTUPS (SE ASIA), Ready Ventures. It has estimated annual revenue of $3M.
CoLive
CoLive
Founded by Suresh Rangarajan in 2016, CoLive is an online platform that allows users to find shared workspaces and accommodations, flats and homes for rent. CoLive offers basic facilities such as housekeeping, laundry services, security and meals, gaming consoles, libraries, gyms, pools and high-speed Wi-Fi. CoLive charges Rs 6,500-9,500 for double sharing and Rs 13,000-18,000 for single-sharing depending on the area. It has received fund from SAR Group Family Office, Salarpuria Sattva.
RentMyStay is a Bangalore-based company which was started in 2015 by Kiran Nagarajappa and Rakesh Kamble. It is an online platform that makes renting as simple as checking into a hotel and provides a wide range of options from fully furnished apartments, villas, rooms to independent homes, for both short term and long term rentals.
RentMyStay follows the flexi rental model, RentMyStay allows one to rent a house for a few days to a few months. RentMyStay presently manages over 300 properties in Bangalore but planning to be starting its operations in Delhi/NCR, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.
Roomee
Roomee
Founded in 2017 by Ravichandran Annadurai, Roomee is a curated Marketplace for PGs ,Longstays & Co-living spaces. As a technology platform, Roomee is fully App enabled and it makes it easy to find and book Co-living spaces. Properties are thoroughly reviewed and curated and hence dependable. With the Roomee mobile app, you can virtually explore your future home from our wide assortment of thoroughly reviewed and handpicked PGs, longstays & co-living spaces.
Founded in 2014 by Dalmia Abhishek, Deepali Dalmia and Neeraj Mittal, Renaissance Living Spaces (RLS) which is a part of Renaissance Group has been in the student, executive and care giver housing (Hostel) business. Each accommodation has an experienced manager supported by full time wardens. This team is responsible to make sure that guests’ needs are addressed promptly, to their satisfaction.
Hello World
Hello World
Home rental network Nestaway is diversifying its offerings. The Hello World is independent subsidiary of NestAway. The Hello World co-living product is aimed at building communities for students and urban migrants.
A Hello World membership will also allow them access to engaging community activities, weekly gatherings, and an online community to exchange conversations, common interests and meet like-minded people. Hello World is currently present in 15 cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune.
Grexter Living
Grexter Living
Grexter Living is co-living space founded by Pratul Gupta, Nikhil Dosi. Grexter Living offers functional and built-to-suit urban studio rooms that provide all the necessary amenities and, at the same time, are aesthetically appealing. Catering primarily to salaried employees, fresh graduates, and techies in the age group of 18-30 years, the spaces they provide consist of a large common kitchen with another huge designated area that has lounges, gaming consoles, and home theaters.
A peaceful and friendly living space is what we all want and look for. This was our list of co-living spcaes startups. Hope this list is useful to find a perfect place for you to live. If you know more co-living startups, write in comment box below.
Today, with everything available on the touch of our fingertips, finding a house is yet a particularly difficult task. Subbu Athikunte, Ambareesha Athikunte, Mayank Pokharna thought of making it hassle-free and consistent experience. So in 2015, they came up with their startup SimplyGuest to make both the handover and handoff procedures of a rental transaction a conflict-free, pleasant experience.
SimplyGuest offers fully-furnished homes for working professionals close to their workplaces. These accommodations are completely managed & rent is inclusive of monthly bills: electricity, water, 30-100mbps WiFi, DTH, unlimited LPG, maid services, repairs, and maintenance. The flats are hassle-free, where SimplyGuest takes care of everything form paying utility bills, providing maid services, taking care of repairs, replacing LPG cylinder.
SimplyGuest also takes care of finding qualified flatmates, their entry, and exits. Tenants can move to any house in our network when they change jobs at no extra cost. SimplyGuest also has hostels; these are professionally managed to pay guest (PG) facilities. Hostels are slightly cheaper, provide quality food, and also have lesser lock-in periods.
Customers who are predominantly singles can choose from private flats ranging from studio rooms, 1BHKs, 2BHKs, 3BHKs, or live in a trendy co-living facility. These homes come with add-on services like meal delivery, bicycle rentals, car parking, furniture rentals, etc. SimplyGuest takes off keeping the homes clean and tidy on a day-to-day basis.
The idea, in the long run, is to be a space management platform. Customers should be able to rent just about any kind of space: houses, garages, storage spaces, bungalows, stadiums, parking spaces, etc via SimplyGuest, hire additional services via the platform, pay rent, and walk out when the need stops.
SimplyGuest – Target Market
According to a recent PropTiger study, co-living in India has the potential to become a USD 93 billion market annually. Co-living is an umbrella term used to refer to student housing and PGs. Another report by JLL states that the real estate renting industry is majorly divided into working professionals and student accommodation:
Number of Singles, Professionals, Paying Guest Rentals = 15M
Number of Student Accommodation on Rentals in India = 10.4M
Nearly 31.56 million people rent homes in urban India (2011 census) = $22 billion
Subbu Athikunte, Ambareesha Athikunte and Mayank Pokharna are the co-founders of SimplyGuest. Subbu and Ambareesha, the brothers started SimplyGuest in 2015. Mayank was an early customer of SimplyGuest but liked SimplyGuest concept so much that he joined full time in 2017.
Subbu Athikunte is a software engineer. He worked at Apigee (later acquired by Google) before quitting to start SimplyGuest. He has worked on distributed systems, analytics, big data, cloud computing, UI, develops and nearly everything else in the field of large-scale software projects. At SimplyGuest, Subbu takes care of tech and product development along with supply acquisition.
Ambareesha used to work on civil and PWD projects before SimplyGuest. At Simplyguest, he takes care of all the ground operations from setting up new properties to maintaining and servicing the existing ones.
Mayank Pokharna did his BE and MBA from Nirma before starting his job at Practo. In his previous role as chief of staff at Cuemath, he worked on streamlining multiple business processes to drive productivity and sales. At Practo, he was responsible for creating and managing end to end operations and business intelligence processes. He was a SimplyGuest customer before joining hands with Subbu and Ambarish. At SimplyGuest he takes care of sales and marketing functions and anything that lies in between.
At SimplyGuest, they believe in value delivery. The core of the philosophy being every action should add incremental value to the overall business. They are a tiny team and let their software make up for the small team size. Currently, they are all working remotely and are on the field most of the time. And here, they treat everything as a software problem. This helps them find solutions that are more scalable and reduce points of conflict. The big vision for SimplyGuest is to become a platform for services that can be consumed by its tenants.
How was SimplyGuest Started
Simply Guest started as a listing website for certified rental homes. The listing had verified information about various aspects of the house, something similar to a used car in Maruti Suzuki TrueValue. People weren’t interested in it. House hunters don’t do things systematically. They trust they will get a good house. In reality that never happens. They’d rather stay in a suboptimal house.
SimplyGuest pivoted to listing PGs and faced different challenges there. PG owners weren’t open to upgrading their facilities with technology. However, during the research for this project, they visited numerous PGs and realized that they were nothing short of cattle-houses. Even if tenants were willing to pay a higher monthly rent, they couldn’t find a decent PG.
That’s when they decided to create an alternative to paying guest accommodation. Around May 2015, they rented a flat in an upscale apartment society, furnished it with everything a family would require, got a very good WiFi connection, DTH, LPG, made the kitchen functional and hired domestic help; it was everything one could possibly ask for in a house. People could rent rooms in a good apartment without worrying about finding other flatmates. Very soon, the flat was fully occupied and that was the starting point for these brilliant minds. This setup provided the best of both worlds. Comfort and privacy of living in a furnished flat and services as you get in a PG without any unnecessary restrictions.
SimplyGuest – Name, Tagline and Logo
Once they had the idea in place, they started noting down all the names that could describe it. Made a list of 20 names in a couple of months, out of which shortlisted 5 and sent a survey to all their friends and colleagues. SimplyGuest was the second most popular and got selected because they couldn’t get a .com domain for the most popular name.
The SimplyGuest team then went on and created a gig on Fiverr to create a logo for SimplyGuest. But they didn’t like the logo that was received. So they created something on their own with limited Photoshop skills. After some dedicated conviction, they got the logo right and it’s the same that they are using till now.
The easiest parts were done first; building the website. They didn’t have any houses to rent, so they took photos of the house where one of the founders was living in and listed it and marked it sold. But they still had to find a house to let out and also needed to find homeowners. Hence they started going around nearby areas looking for ‘To Let’ boards in front of the houses, call them up and explain SimplyGuest. After 10 unsuccessful attempts, they finally found an empty house. The owner was residing in a different city and they managed to convince him to let his property via SimplyGuest.
Finding the first customer was the toughest part. The founders would stand in front of the big corporates on Bannerghatta Road and distribute flyers with house details in it. It was awkwardly embarrassing at first, but they didn’t know any other way. Few people agreed to hear them out of pity.
few people agreed to hear me out out of pity. Only one boy was interested, but our first house was meant for girls. I made a list of offices nearby, started visiting them one by one; we’d try to meet their admin or HR teams, but nobody seemed to care. Had I built something nobody wanted? – SimplyGuest co-founder Subbu recounts.
It had been one and a half month and they were paying for an empty house. None of the marketing channels had worked. They had a few inquiries but nothing potential yet. They were losing hope and they were starting to think that they probably won’t be able to find customers. And Subbu was anyway not able to sell it and had a lot of free time. They thought, why not find a house for the boy who was interested earlier. They went looking around and found one flat close by; it was turned into a PG. Subbu was walking around the building checking the house, some guys staying in it mentioned they weren’t happy staying there; the PG owner had promised them something and hadn’t delivered; maintenance was bad and it didn’t feel good staying there. He explained to them what he was doing and they found it interesting and wanted to check out even though the only house SimplyGuest had then was for girls. They visited the house and loved the concept. Subbu asked them if they would rent it from him if he found them a good home, they said yes. And finally, they were excited.
Subbu came back home and started searching for a house for the potential customers he had met. Bhanu found a house close by; it was within walking distance of their offices. Two of them worked at VMW while the last one worked at Honeywell. They liked the flat and asked them how much it would cost. Subbu hadn’t worked out the details yet he promised them to keep the prices low and get back to them. Only part of the problem was solved but he still had to meet the house owner and convince them about bachelors staying in the house. Subbu met the owner and figured she didn’t mind letting it to bachelors. He went back to the guys, told them about the rent, after they agreed upon the price, he told them they will have to pay an advance as a token of confirmation. They were happy because they were getting a private room with an attached bathroom at a low price – almost for the price of a double-sharing room. They gave him a cheque for 5000 rupees. And Subbu had sold a house that he didn’t have!
The same week someone called him after seeing one of the sun packs – a small 2×1 feet display ad they had set up near the house. The caller was from Lucknow and was in Bangalore searching for a house for his younger sister – she was a postgraduate student in a dental college near Meenakshi Mall. They visited the flat and liked it. The girl wanted to move in next day itself; they were staying in a hotel near-by. In two days, two more girls made bookings.
And then they started listing properties in existing classified/listings websites. This started giving some leads. And in those days, even one lead was a life-saver.
SimplyGuest – Business Model and Revenue Model
Simply Guest lets house owners rent their flats via their platform. They can rent unfurnished, furnished, and spare rooms via SimplyGuest. They find tenants for these houses, help them move-in and take care of household needs. They take a cut in the revenue generated every month for the services they provide.
They have 4 renting models:
Rent houses on a fixed rent
Rent houses on a revenue-sharing model where they take care of finding customers, managing them and the owner takes care of providing services
A car parking marketplace
Co-living projects.
SimplyGuest – Competitors
Major market players have come and played this field. NestAway is one of them. GetSetHome, VivaReal, PGstay, RentMyStay are some of the entities having a great market standing.
SimplyGuest – Growth
Somehow, the SimplyGuest team feels they had gotten lucky to find the first 16 customers. Things happened too quickly from a hopeless state of 45 days without a single customer to 100% occupancy in the next 30 days, numbers in the spreadsheet were overflowing. This could be a beginner’s luck, and they didn’t want to get fooled by it. Even if they weren’t lucky, and achieved all this by hard work, they had to find ways to replicate this.
They also started trying out SimplyGuest advertisements on the traffic police warning signs. The majority of the calls originating from this were for BTM Layout, specifically Stage II. It became apparent that they needed some houses in BTM Stage II. Hence they started looking around for to-let boards in BTM Layout and onboarded a full building.
They installed sun boards, a small 1×2 feet semi-plastic board that you find in malls, in front of the house, and around BTM Stage II, these are different from sun packs. Since they had signed these houses and realized BTM is a hub for young people. Every second house had been turned into a PG; they thought they’ll be able to sell their new houses very quickly.
People started visiting the flat after seeing the to-let board in front of the house; they were having 8-10 visits a day. They had a free listing on OLX and Quikr and these channels also started giving some leads.
They then went on to open up a referral program; every successful referral would get Rs 2000. They also messaged existing customers about it and created a WhatsApp group for every house. A customer from House #4 referred to three of her friends; these guys were college-mates and wanted to stay together at BTM. (One of them was Mayank; he later became a core part of SimplyGuest)
The marketing channels they tried to find customers were helping them in other ways. A lady called them one day and wanted SimplyGuest to rent 4 flats in Vijaya Bank Layout! Subbu was surprised to know that she had taken his phone number from the sun packs they were using for finding guests. The flats were in the final stage of construction and they had already started looking out for customers. She and her husband showed us the flats, these flats were close to SimplyGuest’s previous properties, and they ended up taking the property.
Domestic house help in general, and cleaning dishes specifically, has been the surprise element that makes customers stick to a house. If they can provide this consistently, they can retain almost all customers. Houses need regular maintenance for long-term use, initial customers don’t stay put if the house becomes unlivable. Plus, if the commuting time to the workplace is manageable, people stick around the house. Scaling this business is not as easy as adding servers and staff; operations are the key. Scaling physical operations takes time and sustained the effort.
Spending on advertising will get new customers, but it doesn’t help to retain existing customers. New customers are a finite set, whereas existing customers pay recurring rent. That’s what they are currently focusing on.
Providing consistently good services year-long matters more than discounts. If the bed goes vacant for a day, the revenue is lost permanently. House owners may not want to absorb this cost. Simply Guest calls this angel-stays.
They operate in about 15 locations in South Bangalore. Unlike their competitors, SimplyGuest operates shared houses, co-living properties, and also hostels (PGS). This covers the entire breadth of home options.
Nitin Konde
