Home Rental Startup NestAway Confirms $51 Mn Fundraise From Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund

Home rental startup NestAway has announced a $51 Mn fundraise from Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund and the University of California.

As part of the deal, Goldman Sachs invested $19 Mn through its Indian and Hong Kong-based investment arm in primary as well as secondary capital. UC-RNT Fund poured another $16 Mn in the Bengaluru-headquartered home rental platform.

Apart from that, existing investors – including Tiger Global and IDG India – also participated in the financing round. NestAway’s post-money valuation reportedly stood at $180 Mn-$200 Mn.

Commenting on the development, Amarendra Sahu, co-founder and CEO of NestAway, said, “With this funding, we shall strive harder to impact not only where people live but also how they live and shall work on community housing and student housing in addition to our existing categories.”

On the investment, Niladri Mukhopadhyay, MD at Goldman Sachs, stated, “NestAway is at the forefront of using technology and a hands-on, customer-centric approach to solving complex housing market in India’s largest cities. We look forward to partnering with them to bring greater levels of convenience, transparency and service to both home-owners and home-renters throughout India.”

Growth Story Of NestAway

NestAway was founded in January 2015 by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev. The company is an online marketplace for home rentals that turns unfurnished houses into fully-furnished and managed apartments and rents them to pre-verified tenants.

NestAway today caters to over 35,000 tenants and 16,000 owners, including over 7,000 family owners in Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Noida, Mumbai and Pune.

The company has recently introduced “One by NestAway,” a community housing rental solution aimed at catering to a group of like-minded people wanting to stay together. From this academic year onwards, it also plans to foray into student housing starting from Delhi north campus and Pune.

With the latest round of funding, NestAway’s total fundraise has touched $94 Mn. The startup is backed by marquee investors such as Ratan Tata, Yuri Milner, Tiger Global, and IDG.

Earlier in February 2016, Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in Nestaway Technologies Pvt Ltd. In April 2016, NestAway raised $30 Mn (INR 200 Cr) in a major funding round led by Tiger Global, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner-backed fund Apoletto Asia, Flipkart official Sujeet Kumar and IDG Ventures.

Also, in May 2017, NestAway acquired residential rental management company Zenify for an undisclosed amount.

Goldman Sachs has been exploring Indian startup market and has invested in startups like budget accommodation provider, FabHotels and pharmacy retail chain MedPlus.

Recently in January, MedPlus raised $117.67 Mn (INR 750 Cr) in a debt fund from Goldman Sachs. Earlier in July 2017, FabHotels raised $25 Mn in Series B round of funding led by financial services firm Goldman Sachs.

What’s Happening In The Home Rental Space?

In the online rental space, NestAway competes with players like Placio, Homigo, Stanza Living etc.

Recently in February, student housing startup Placio raised $2 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round from Prestellar Ventures. Around the same time, co-living startup CoLive raised $1.8 Mn (INR12 Cr) in a round of funding led by Ncubate Capital Partners.

In November 2017, another player of student accommodation, Stanza Living raised $2 Mn in funding from investment firms Matrix Partners and California-headquartered Accel Partners.

In the booming online rental sector, the startups have been facing a dearth of investments for quite some time. This, in turn, has led to acquisitions and meeting of synergies to enable players to grow together.

Amid this, with the funding of NestAway backed by Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT fund and the University of California, the growth of home rental startup is to be looked at.

[The development was reported by TOI]