A digital revolution is taking place in India’s real estate business. To stay up with the trends and meet the wants of their customers, real estate companies are investing in new technologies like cloud services, mapping platforms, and artificial intelligence. By eliminating the middleman and connecting owners, purchasers, and tenants directly through an AI-driven platform, NoBroker is revolutionizing the real estate industry. To shed light on NoBroker’s revenue generation process and provide an in-depth review of the company’s business strategy this article explores the NoBroker Business Model.
Homebuyers and sellers in India often criticize the high cost of brokers and the high number of duplicated postings. The broker fee can be as high as six percent of the sale price or ten months’ rent, depending on the broker. By utilizing NoBroker’s app for comprehensive property services, from listing to closing, customers can avoid paying brokerage fees. In 2014, three experienced professionals – Akhil Gupta, Amit Agarwal, and Saurabh Garg – founded NoBroker to simplify and enhance the real estate renting and purchase process. The Banaglore-based company provides a variety of services to its users, such as real estate listings, home services, and buying and selling properties.
In addition to renting, purchasing, and selling, the company also provides home services like packers and movers, house interior design, and more. They also offer financial services and society management through NoBrokerHood. The national capital region, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai are the six places where the startup is presently present. There are several subscription methods that the company uses to make money. In addition to that, it earns money from commissions on value-added services and transaction fees.
NoBroker Business Model Canvas
NoBroker operates as a tech-driven real estate platform that eliminates brokerage by directly connecting property owners and seekers. It offers a wide range of services, including property transactions, home services, and financial solutions, all powered by AI and subscription-based monetization.
How Does NoBroker Makes Money | NoBroker Revenue Model
A significant portion of the revenue generated by the real estate portal comes from subscriptions, financial offerings, and home services. The revenue model of NoBroker is based on paid subscriptions, commissions from home loan services, and income from home-related services like packing, moving, and interior design. The memberships offered by NoBroker, which are responsible for the majority of the company’s earnings, are priced at INR 999 for 45 days and give customers the ability to use premium filters while seeking out flats. In addition, it generates revenue by assisting homebuyers in securing house loan transactions with financial institutions, and in exchange, it receives a commission from the financial institution. Cleaning, packing, moving, giving furniture for rent, doing house interiors, and taking care of internet agreements are other home services that help the company generate more revenue.
NoBroker Financials FY24
NoBroker Financials
FY24
FY23
Revenue
INR 803 crore
INR 609 crore
Expenses
INR 1299 crore
INR 1190 crore
Profit/Loss
INR -411 crore
INR -506 crore
NoBroker Revenue
NoBroker has shown significant revenue growth over the years, but expenses have also increased, leading to continued losses. Below is a detailed financial breakdown from FY24 to FY20.
At the present moment, NoBroker is concentrating on enhancing its services by utilizing cutting-edge technologies. Through the use of artificial intelligence projects such as Smart Recommendations for quality of life indicators, Rent-o-meter for rent forecasts, Refer-And-Earn for crowdsourcing property listings, and Touchless Entry for face recognition security features, it provides its consumers with the advantages that machine learning has to offer.
Customers are assisted in locating a home that best suits their needs through the Smart Recommendations project. The algorithm searches for local amenities and public transportation and then assigns a score for both livability and transit. This type of information supplements the details provided by the owners of the property and assists buyers and tenants in making well-informed decisions regarding each property.
NoBroker SWOT Analysis
NoBroker SWOT Analysis
NoBroker Strength
The organization has a strong web presence, which makes it an essential domain for people who are looking to purchase, sell, or rent a home.
The concept of “No Brokerage” is quite appealing in and of itself, particularly to students and bachelors who are often looking for rental houses.
Because of the ever-increasing population and the larger migration to metropolitan areas, this presents a perfect opportunity for the company to expand its operations.
NoBroker Weakness
The company needs strong marketing strategies to propel its expansion.
No Broker needs to keep a strong check on its property ad postings as many times customers have complained about postings being misleading.
NoBroker Opportunity
At this point, the corporation should expand its operations to include tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Considering that India is a country that is dominated by young people, this indicates that a greater number of individuals are actively searching to own property, which is good news for the organization.
NoBroker Threat
If it wants to stay ahead of the competition, NoBroker needs to update itself because there are a lot of fresh, comparable concepts appearing in the market.
The business strategy that NoBroker employs is a force that is disrupting the Indian real estate market. As a result of the company’s utilization of technology to facilitate the elimination of the requirement for middlemen, the transaction costs for property owners and seekers have been greatly reduced. The business model, revenue model, and approach that NoBroker takes toward its customers all work together to produce a property search experience that is simple to use.
FAQs
What is NoBroker?
NoBroker is a Banagalore-based company that operates as a brokerage-free PopTech company offering a comprehensive marketplace for various real estate services, including buying, renting, packers & movers, and home services.
Who is the owner of NoBroker?
Akhil Gupta, Amit Agarwal, and Saurabh Garg founded NoBroker in 2014.
How many users does NoBroker have?
There are over 30 million registered users on NoBroker’s platform. And as per the company, only five percent of the services are paid.
How does NoBroker earn money?
NoBroker earns money mainly through paid subscriptions, where users pay for premium features like advanced filters and contact access. It also generates revenue from home services such as packers and movers, cleaning, interior design, and furniture rentals. The company earns commissions by helping users secure home loans through partner financial institutions. Its society management platform, NoBrokerHood, also contributes to its income through service fees.
Is NoBroker profitable?
No, NoBroker is not yet profitable. For FY24, the company reported INR 803 crore in revenue, up nearly 32% year-over-year. Despite revenue growth, expenses rose to INR 1,299 crore, leading to a net loss of INR 411 crore, a 19% reduction from FY23’s INR 506 crore loss.
How does NoBroker work?
NoBroker works by directly connecting property owners with buyers or tenants, removing the need for middlemen or brokers. Users can search, list, or rent properties through its app or website. It also offers home services, financial help, and society management via NoBrokerHood.
How to earn money from no broker app?
You can earn money from the NoBroker app through its Refer & Earn program. By sharing your referral code with friends or family, you earn rewards when they use the app to buy, sell, or rent a property. Also, if you offer services like cleaning, shifting, or interior work, you can partner with NoBroker as a service provider and earn by completing jobs listed on the platform.
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Anything that has to do with real estate, specifically as a purchaser has always been convoluted and annoying. The constant push from the sellers, nagging from the middlemen, lack of fluid communication, and running helter-skelter to get the paperwork done are some of the common horrors in the world of real estate. Was it meant to be this way?
Yes, many of us have pondered on the scene on several occasions but without any outcome. Akhil Gupta, Amit Agarwal, and Saurabh Garg also thought of improving this gloomy scenario and found a solution in the form of NoBroker. Founded in 2014, NoBroker is aBangalore-based startup in the real estate search domain, that connects flat and property owners with tenants and buyers directly through their platform, thereby making buying, selling, and renting properties simpler, transparent, and affordable.
NoBroker claims to handle around $2 billion worth of transactions on its platform each year and saves INR 130 crores of brokerage monthly. The platform helped Indian real estate customers save around INR 1,100 crores worth of brokerage in 2020. The company further strives to help the Indians usher in a new era of smooth and easy real estate transactions minus the “brokers.” The startup became a unicorn on November 23, 2021.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Saurabh Garg, Co-Founder & CBO of NoBroker to get insights on the Startup Journey and the Growth Story of NoBroker. Read on to learn about NoBroker company, its owner, business model, revenue model, competitors, founders, revenue, funding & more.
NoBroker is a disruptive force in the real estate sector that uses innovative technologies to connect property owners, buyers, and renters with the help of a single platform.
Here’s what NoBroker has to say about their mission:
Our mission is to lead India’s real estate industry towards an era of doing real estate transactions in a convenient and brokerage-free manner.
NoBroker – Real Estate Industry Details
India’s real estate market was worth $477 billion in 2022. It is projected to grow to $1 trillion by 2030 and $5.17 trillion by 2047. Furthermore, the market size of the real estate sector in India, which was estimated to be around US$ 120 billion in 2017, will be expected to grow to US$ 1 trillion by 2030 and will contribute nearly 13% to the country’s GDP by 2025.
In FY23, India’s residential real estate market experienced unprecedented growth, with home sales reaching a record high of INR 3.47 lakh crore ($42 billion), marking a substantial 48% year-on-year increase. This surge underscores the sector’s potential, with forecasts suggesting its contribution to India’s GDP could rise to 15.5% by 2047, expanding the real estate sector to a projected $5.8 trillion.
Besides, Indian firms are also expected to raise more than $48 billion with the help of infrastructure and real estate investment trusts in 2022 when compared to raised funds, which are worth $29 billion to date, according to ICRA.
NoBroker company was founded by Amit Kumar Agarwal, Akhil Gupta, and Saurabh Garg.
“I first met Akhil when we were studying at IIT Bombay and Amit at IIM Ahmedabad. Convincing them was not tough, as we all had our fair share of hassle when looking for properties” says Saurabh Garg, Co-founder & CBO, NoBroker.
Amit Kumar Agarwal: Co-founder and CEO of NoBroker
Akhil Gupta: Co-founder, Chief Tech and Product Officer of NoBroker
Saurabh Garg: Co-founder and CBO of NoBroker
NoBroker company currently operates with a team of 1000+ highly motivated individuals consistently working to offer better services to over 30 million registered users across Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi-NCR.
Amit Kumar Agarwal: Co-founder & CEO, NoBroker
Amit Agarwal is a banking and finance veteran, with over 15 years of experience in the banking and finance sector in management consulting and strategy. He had previously worked with leading global entities like PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he collaborated with numerous renowned Indian and foreign banks. Besides, he also garnered considerable experience of working with the top CXOs on several critical aspects, including the formulation of business strategy and the enhancement of on-ground profitability. He also displays a successful track record of guiding entry and portfolio strategy along with large-scale policy implementation and has won several industry accolades for his accomplishments.
In his role as the CEO of NoBroker.in, Amit spearheads the organization’s overall vision and direction and is responsible for defining and gilding its corporate strategies. Amit is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and IIM, Ahmedabad.
Akhil Gupta: Co-founder & CTO, NoBroker
Akhil is the Co-founder and Chief Tech and Product Officer of NoBroker and has been instrumental in building the foundation for NoBroker’s spectacular growth. Akhil holds a dual degree (B.Tech & M.Tech) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
He leads the entire tech vertical of the company and is responsible for building, scaling, and managing teams along with overseeing the business growth of NoBroker to promise a heightened customer experience. His commitment to efficiency and finding disruptive solutions to the most crucial business challenges has helped NoBroker offer some ground-breaking features like the AMP/PWA, and WhatsApp chat feature, along with the use of AI and ML to provide rent prediction and recommendations. These were some of the firsts in its league. Many of the products built at NoBroker serve as successful case studies at Google and Facebook.
Furthermore, Akhil also monitors the products of the company and is continuously engaged in making necessary amendments and improvements to them. Akhil had over a decade’s worth of experience before setting forth with NoBroker. He had previously worked with Oracle, where he had led several products in Siebel, Oracle Ebiz, and Oracle Sales Cloud, and was also responsible for filing a couple of patents for the same. He is currently associated with the world’s largest customer-to-customer real estate portal and is anticipating massive growth in the upcoming years.
Saurabh Garg: Co-founder & CBO, NoBroker
Saurabh Garg was also a student of IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad and as soon as he finished his studies, he set out with Hindustan Unilever Limited as a fresh graduate. Saurabh worked for the Sales and Marketing team of HUL and left the company after 3 years. Next, he founded Four Fountains De-Stress Spa, which was his first entrepreneurial leap. Saurabh is still serving as the Co-founder and Director of the Four Fountains Spa, which he founded back in May 2007.
His experience with Hindustan Unilever and as an entrepreneur helped him gain considerable experience. This has further benefitted him in his role as the Chief Business Officer at NoBroker.in. Saurabh’s role in the revolutionary real-estate platform is mainly to pursue strategic alliances with real estate developers and corporates to bring high-quality supply and demand at a low cost, thereby expanding the revenue stream. Saurabh contributed largely to building the marketing team from scratch and empowered them to take on new challenges and try new and disruptive solutions without fearing failure. This freedom to experiment is one of the reasons why NoBroker.in has achieved over 1 million app downloads within the first 3 years with surprisingly less marketing costs. The platform also has the lowest customer acquisition costs in the competitive Indian real estate sector.
Amid mounting social media criticism from dissatisfied customers, Saurabh Garg stated that the company is actively addressing concerns and harnessing artificial intelligence to resolve issues efficiently.
NoBroker – History and Startup Story
Reminiscing the startup journey of NoBroker.in, Saurabh Garg (Co-founder & CBO of NoBroker) says:
“We established NoBroker.in when we realized that the real estate search and discovery process was fragmented, opaque, inefficient, and full of hassles for the customer. The idea first germinated after the awful experiences that we personally had with brokers while looking for a property. All the other online platforms are also marketing platforms for brokers and it is very difficult to contact the owner/seller directly. This dependence on the broker made the experience horrible for the customer. Brokers subject customers to biases, pressures, and manipulations”
He continued –
“Through NoBroker.in, we wanted to empower Indian home-seekers to find a home of their choice in a hassle free manner without paying a hefty brokerage. We did not have a prototype or a model to copy from as this was a solution built for a problem unique to Indian real estate. Brokerage has been an accepted norm for generations and therefore, penetrating the market with as disruptive a solution was not easy. The idea was simple yet bold but we knew that there was a huge scope for it. We launched the website in March 2014. Once the customer understood the unique proposition, there was no turning back for us”.
NoBroker – Products and Services
NoBroker.in addresses the gap of information asymmetry that the Indian homebuyers face in its real estate market. Its disruptive solution connects property seekers with property owners, a process that earlier used to cost as much as 1-2 months of rent or 4% of the transaction amount as brokerage. The platform also provides personalized recommendations and assists with decision-making based on real-time data.
“We are the only platform in the C2C space that directly connects tenants and buyers with owners and sellers” Saurabh mentioned.
The platform offers end-to-end one-stop solutions for property seekers including services such as rental agreements, movers & packers services, home loans, interiors, special packages for NRIs, relocation services for corporates, remote property management services, etc. It also facilitates online rent payment via credit cards, debit cards, net banking, and UPI wallets.
NoBroker also promises to be a one-stop-shop for processing the paperwork and documentation, associated with the lease agreement registration, bank franking, police verification, and society approvals.
NoBroker Home Services – Along with serving as an excellent solution for home buyers and renters, NoBroker also extends a list of useful services for homes, which are:
Painting services
Cleaning services
Home sanitization services
AC repair services
Pest control services
Carpentry services
Plumbing services
NoBroker Furniture – NoBroker also offers a wide range of furniture to buy/rent and ease the process online. It helps in installing and free relocation of furniture, swapping old ones with new ones, and maintaining them.
The platform’s visitor and community management super app- NoBrokerHood is currently optimizing society living across 11,000 societies in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, and Kochi.
CallZen
CallZen, a platform for conversational AI, has been introduced by NoBroker on October 12, 2023. The Bengaluru-based company has already ventured into other verticals, such as apartment management software, home services, and beauty, so this is an entirely new business line for NoBroker.
NoBroker – Name and Logo
“The name had to be simple, self-explanatory and direct. So, when I saw that name NoBroker.in is available I booked it immediately back in 2007” says Saurabh.
NoBroker Logo
NoBroker – Business Model and Revenue Model
The business model of NoBroker acts as a digital peer-to-peer platform that allows homeowners/sellers and prospective tenants/buyers to connect directly without the involvement of a broker. It provides a subscription business model to customers who are looking to buy, sell, or rent a property.
NoBroker has 3 revenue models:
Freemium model for tenants
Freedom plan
Relax plan
MoneyBack plan
Apart from that, NoBroker also offers an array of home services like packers and movers, home cleaning, home painting, interiors, and a lot more. These are also among the notable sources of revenue for NoBroker.
Real estate is a huge sector and a vastly unorganized one. For generations, it had relied on traditional processes, which involved a third party. The history of brokerage services can also be traced down to the earliest establishments of real estate. The team, therefore, focused on the most fundamental challenge faced by real estate customers: the service they were receiving was not commensurate with what the customer paid for it.
As there was information asymmetry, people had no option but to rely on broker services. Real estate platforms have been around for decades and have tried to solve the issue of information asymmetry. However, they couldn’t keep brokers away from the system. This led brokers to exploit the system to their benefit.
“When I – along with my Co-founders Amit and Akhil – formed NoBroker.in, we were determined to use technology to address the gaps in the property discovery creating a platform that was 100% brokerage free” Saurabh added.
Their approach differed from the other online real estate platforms in that they were essentially tying up with property brokers and getting them to list properties on their platforms. On the other hand, the team connected owners with sellers and tenants with buyers directly. Because of this approach, NoBroker’s value proposition found a favorable reception from the customers. NoBroker has the highest number of owner-listed properties.
It bootstrapped for quite a few months. Getting investors to believe in its proposition was a challenge because the team did not have an existing successful model to convince them to back it.
“But we were sure of our resolve and our solution, and the needle moved when we raised our first $20 million”, Saurabh exclaims proudly.
The pandemic ironically offered a shot in the arm as people could not use offline services and relied heavily on online platforms to search and finalize a house. One way or the other, the value-conscious Indian customer has realized and appreciated NoBroker’s unique proposition and helped it grow.
NoBroker has raised a total funding of $430.9 million to date. The company raised INR 400M from its Series-E funding led by Google, dated March 1, 2023. This has shot the valuation of the startup to over a billion dollars, thereby making it India’s first proptech (property tech) unicorn startup and the 38th Indian startup to be a unicorn in 2021.
It also raised $210 mn from its Series E funding led by General Atlantic and Tiger Global Management, dated November 23, 2021, where the US-based Moore Strategic Ventures also joined later on.
Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Anand Chandrashekharan, ex-Facebook are among the angel investors in the company. Google, Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and BEENEXT are some of the popular investors fueling the brand.
With the successful completion of the upcoming round, the company is estimated to be valued at over $1 billion. However, the startup managed to raise more than that and eventually emerged as a unicorn.
The Funding and Investors’ details of NoBroker are as follows –
Date
Amount
Stage
Investors
March 1, 2023
INR 400 million
Series E
Google
November 23, 2021
INR 15.8 billion
Series E
General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management
April 16, 2020
$30 million
Series D
General Atlantic
November 5, 2019
$10 million
Venture Round
General Atlantic
October 1, 2019
$50 million
Series D
Tiger Global
September 11, 2019
$51 million
Venture Round
Tiger Global Management
June 5, 2019
$51 million
Series C
General Atlantic
June 4, 2019
$2.5 million
Debt Financing
Trifecta Capital Advisors
December 19, 2016
$7 million
Series B
KTB Ventures
February 24, 2016
$10 million
Series B
BEENEXT
February 23, 2015
$3 million
Series A
Fulcrum Ventures India, SAIF Partners
March 1, 2014
–
Angel Round
–
NoBroker – Shareholding
NoBroker’s shareholding pattern as of July 2024, sourced from Tracxn:
NoBroker Shareholders
Percentage
Amit Kumar Agarwal
6.8%
Akhil Gupta
6.8%
Saurabh Garg
5.3%
General Atlantic
31.1%
Tiger Global Management
13.9%
Elevation Capital
16.3%
Moore Ventures
4.6%
Beenext
4.4%
Beenos
1.4%
DG Incubation
1.3%
VD Investments
0.9%
KTB Ventures
1.6%
Rocketship
0.5%
Qualgro
0.4%
Youngmonk Trust
–
Fulcrum PE
–
DST Global
–
Trifecta Capital
–
Google
0.5%
Angel
1.2%
ESOP Pool
3.0%
Total
100.0%
NoBroker Shareholding
NoBroker – Financials
NoBroker has shown significant revenue growth over the years, but expenses have also increased, leading to continued losses. Below is a detailed financial breakdown from FY24 to FY20.
Particulars
FY24
FY23
Revenue
INR 803 crore
INR 609 crore
Expenses
INR 1299 crore
INR 1190 crore
Profit/Loss
INR -411 crore
INR -506 crore
NoBroker Financials
NoBroker EBITDA
NoBroker Financials
FY24
FY23
EBITDA Margin
-66.55%
-42.5%
Expense/INR of op Revenue
INR 1.62
INR 1.95
ROCE
-37.12%
-34.12%
NoBroker – ESOP
NoBroker announced the completion of its employee buyback worth INR 32.2 crore in a report dated March 15, 2022. The buyback program of the proptech unicorn promises to allow 95 former and current employees of the company to liquidate their stock options, which make up for 57% of total employees with ESOPs.
NoBrokerHood acquired Society Connect on February 11, 2020, to integrate the financial module with its services on one single platform and make society’s living easy and hassle-free.
NoBroker – Competitors
“As mentioned above, what differentiates us from other online real estate platforms is that ours is the only platform that is 100% brokerage free. We are not just enabling property discovery. We are a transaction platform and provide end to end solution. In that sense, we don’t have competition” says Saurabh.
NoBroker.in is a market leader in customer-to-customer real estate transactions and leading third-party endorsements have recognized the same,
NoBroker.in was part of the elite ‘Champions of Change’ with the Prime Minister of India organized by the NITI Aayog.
NoBroker.in has been recognized as the “Coolest Startup” by the India Today Group.
The company was distinguished as the most promising startup for 2017, a recognition that it received from the Govt. of Gujarat.
NoBroker was also recognized by Forbes Japan as one of the 20 hot startups in India.
NoBroker was listed as one of the top 100 startups (36 on readers rating) with gravity-defying momentum to look up to in 2017 by YourStory.
NoBroker bagged the Digital Marketer of the Year award by IAMAI in 2018.
Most recently, the company received an award at the Emerging Awards by Tracxn where it was declared as one of the topmost companies in Real Estate Tech from across the globe.
NoBroker won for Disintermediation of Real Estate Transactions in the category of Innovation in Real Estate at the 14th AGBA in April 2024.
NoBroker plans to expand its presence significantly in the Indian real estate market. They aim to reach 50 cities within the next three years, moving from their current base of 6 cities. This expansion is driven by strong demand and a focus on improving services through technology. NoBroker is actively pursuing AI-driven B2B services to increase profitability and eventually consider an IPO.
FAQs
Who are the Founders of NoBroker?
NoBroker was founded by Amit Kumar Agarwal, Akhil Gupta, and Saurabh Garg.
What is NoBroker?
NoBroker is a Bangalore-based real estate search portal, which helps connect flat owners with tenants/buyers directly and makes the buying-selling of real estate simpler. NoBroker removes the need for brokers in real estate-related dealings.
When was NoBroker founded?
NoBroker was founded in 2014.
What is NoBroker net worth?
NoBroker net worth as of March 2023 is $954 million.
How does NoBroker make money? What is NoBroker revenue model?
Around 70% of NoBroker’s revenue comes from the subscription plans it offers on various packages. Advertisementsfrom furniture start-ups also contribute significantly as NoBroker claims over 2.5 million users visit its website per month. NoBroker also earns revenueby offering services, such as connecting tenants with movers and packers, drafting rental agreements, and extending a wide range of home services.
What is NoBroker business model?
NoBroker follows a freemium model, offering broker-free real estate transactions. It earns revenue through subscription plans, advertising, home services, and financial products like rent payments and home loans. Its AI-driven platform connects buyers, sellers, tenants, and landlords directly, eliminating middlemen.
How NoBroker works?
NoBroker is a broker-free real estate platform that connects property owners with buyers or tenants directly. It uses AI-powered matching to suggest suitable listings and allows users to communicate without middlemen. The platform also offers value-added services like home loans, rent payments, legal help, and movers. It follows a freemium model, earning from subscriptions, ads, and services, while keeping basic property listings free.
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 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.
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