NestAway Acquires ApnaComplex To Bring End-To-End Smart Housing Facilities

Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway has now announced its acquisition of Bengaluru-based apartment management and security solution, ApnaComplex.

Talking to Inc42, Amarendra Sahu, cofounder, and CEO, Nestaway said that the deal is a combination of cash and stock, but refused to share further details on the matter. Raja Sekhar Kommu, cofounder and CEO of ApnaComplex told us that the acquisition helps in fulfilling the apartment ecosystem with end-to-end support by both companies.

Sahu said that post-acquisition, ApnaComplex will retain its brand and culture and will continue to operate independently. The company will continue to focus on its core segment of Apartment Societies.

Founded in 2015 by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev, NestAway is an online marketplace for home rentals that turns unfurnished houses into fully-furnished and managed apartments and rents them to pre-verified tenants. It currently manages 150K units across 15 cities.

Founded in 2010 by Raja Sekhar Kommu and Gokul Singh, ApnaComplex is an apartment management and security solution. The company caters to over 20K societies across more than 80 cities in India.

The Synergies And Cross-Leveraging: Nestaway And ApnaComplex

The ApnaComplex founders explained to us that the acquisition brings mutual benefit for the users of both the companies. Kommu explains that the users of ApnaComplex can get the benefits of Nestaway’s high-value home services including painting, pest control or deep cleaning at fraction of the market rate that NestAway has been delivering in its network.

The companies have said that the acquisition supports NestAway and ApnaComplex’s shared vision to bring more convenience to the owners and residents of Gated Communities in India. They said that while NestAway has transformed the process of renting of houses using its innovative business models, ApnaComplex is focusing on making life convenient for the residents, homeowners and their associations in gated communities.

“We thought it’s a very opportune time to build an ecosystem together wherein ApnaComplex users can benefit from Nestaway. This acquisition is to enable ApnaComplex userbase across cities to enjoy services of Nestaway and with this sampling, they can overtime be turned into NestAway’s owners or tenants,” Sahu told Inc42.

He added that the companies will be cross-leveraging their services for both the userbases. “So, we benefit from the customer acquisition cost perspective, while they benefit from a higher-services quality perspective,” Sahu added.

However, a cross-over here is that Nestaway is present in 15 cities while ApnaComplex is present in over 80 cities. On being questioned about the plans to leverage this in cities Nestaway is not available, Sahu explained that ApnaComplex would be able to help the company plan better.

“Till now for every new city, we have depended on public data and resources, but now with ApnaComplex’ presence, we will be able to have better insights,” he added.

Further, with regards to leveraging ApnaComplex for Nestaway’s coliving unit, Hello World, Sahu said that the acquisition will be only leveraged for apartment complexes.

Apartment Management And Real Estate Tech

In the past few years, India has been among one of the most active markets outside the US for real estate technology investments. The real estate needs of the country are vast and startups have only just begun to scratch the surface of the opportunity for technology-enabled innovation.

According to a GrantThornton and FICCI 2015 report, the private security services market in India was $5.6 Bn (INR 40K Cr) in 2014 and is expected to reach $11 Bn (INR 80K Cr) by the year 2020, providing employment to more than 70 Lakh people.

In the apartment management space, we have players like Tiger Global-backed MyGate, Reliance Jio’s JioGate among others. The real estate sector in India is expected to reach a market size of $1 Tn by 2030 from $120 Bn in 2017 and contribute 13% of the country’s GDP by 2025.