Co-living Space Provider StayAbode Raises Funding To Fuel Its Expansion Plans

Bengaluru-based startup StayAbode has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-Series A round from Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group); Vineet Sekhsaria (Head, Real Estate investing, Morgan Stanley); and Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc.

StayAbode builds co-living spaces and believes that co-living is gradually becoming the preferred way of living for several reasons – saves money, is more fulfilling than living alone, people want to make/have friends to share common interests with and it’s easier to move in when shifting to a new city.

It was co-founded in October 2016 by Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya who have strong backgrounds in marketing, technology and finance having founded start-ups and previously worked at startups like Runnr, Treebo Hotels and Roadhouse Hostels.

As Tomoya Ogawa, CFO at Akatsuki, Inc. and Managing Director of AET Fund, believes, co-living space is not just financially attractive, but will also enable millennials to have a more fulfilling and delightful living experience through bonding and social activities.

StayAbode will thus use the raised funds to scale the business and create more supply as demand increases. Further, it has plans to expand in several other cities in due course of time. The startup will be launching 12 more buildings in Bengaluru as the company is going deeper into micro markets.

Viral Chhajer, Co-founder & CEO, StayAbode, said, “Each of our investors brings on-board a unique perspective to our vision of redefining the way millennials live in our cities. Capital raised now will be primarily used to make key hires across verticals and set the base for our expansion into our cities across the country.”

StayAbode had earlier raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Incubate Fund. Also, there were a group of investors from the real estate industry including Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex-Joint MD JLL India), as well as some existing investors.

The startup leverages technology, design, service and brand to build co-spaces for the rental residential real estate market at scale. It is currently having 950 beds live and is operating 97% occupancy at 15 properties across Bengaluru.

Earlier this year, Bengaluru-based co-living space provider CoLive had raised $1.8 Mn (INR12 Cr) in a round of funding led by Ncubate Capital Partners, the private investment arm of SAR Family Office.

Prior to that, in November 2017, New Delhi-based student accommodation platform Stanza Living had raised $2 Mn in funding from investment firms Matrix Partners and California-headquartered Accel Partners.

The co-living space in India has been sprouting up with startups like CoLive, Zocalo, Stanza Living among others. As the young students and working professionals move out of their homes to the bigger cities, and with a considerable rise in the standard of living, the opportunity is currently ripe for the startups in this space.

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