SUMMARY
The Student Accommodation Startup Will Be Utilising The Capital To Expand Its Geographical Reach And Hire New Teams
New Delhi-based student accommodation platform Stanza Living has raised $2 Mn in funding from investment firms Matrix Partners and California-headquartered Accel Partners.
The startup will be utilising the fresh capital to expand its presence in new cities and further develop its technology platform. A portion of the funding will also be spent on talent acquisition.
Commenting on the fundraise, Gourav Bhattacharya, VP at Matrix Partners India said, “Today, students in India aspire for a higher level of safety, comfort and a feeling of community at their existing accommodation options. Stanza Living’s approach to creating a home away from home for students, is a compelling value proposition that we expect will see rapid adoption from parents and students across the country.”
As stated by Stanza Living co-founder Anindya Dutta, the company is looking to extend its geographical reach beyond Delhi/NCR to other educational hubs across the country. In the next two years, the startup is aiming to increase the number of students on its platform from the current 100 to over 5,000.
Dutta added, “We are currently building another 300 housing spaces focused on students. We do not operate as a PG/rental aggregator, but instead focus on student accommodation services loaded with all facilities like internet connectivity, recreational spaces, housekeeping, and food services.”
Stanza Living: Redefining The Student Accommodation Search Experience
Founded in the early part of 2017 by former Boston Consulting Group executive Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta, Stanza Living (taken from the Italian word for room/apartment/chamber) is a technology-enabled student accommodation concept that puts the student as a consumer at the heart of its product and service design.
Using the Stanza Living platform, students can find accommodation with prices ranging from $108.7 (INR 7,000) to $388.2 (INR 25,000). In addition to offering accommodation facilities, the startup specialises in student well-being programmes.
For instance, it provides community networking and internship opportunities to students through its “Stanza Social” initiative. The programme, which organises monthly networking events with startups and bigger firms, is aimed at ensuring a student’s well-being and all-round development.
Another programme offered by the platform is Stanza Springboard, which focusses on the professional growth and development of students. As part of this initiative, the company provides counselling sessions, internship opportunities with different companies as well as interactive sessions with startup founders and other industry professionals.
The country’s student accommodation sector, Dutta claims, is largely disorganised and fragmented. Armed with the newly-raised financing from Matrix Partners and Accel, Stanza Living is looking to redefine student living experiences.
A spokesperson from the company stated, “It amazes us as to how an industry that generates annual revenues in excess of $14 Bn continues to see no fundamental innovations and disruption. We, at Stanza, see a massive disruption opportunity in this industry. We believe we could create a powerful youth brand that could organize the student accommodation market in ways similar to how the Hiltons and Marriotts of the world transformed the hospitality space.”
Other startups in the accommodation aggregator space include Bengaluru-based home rental platform Nestaway, Homigo, Zocalo, Gurugram-based Fella Homes and NoBroker. There are also indirect players in the space offering rental as one of their verticals including Quikr, 99acres, Magicbricks, etc. With the $2 Mn funding from Matrix Partners and Accel, Stanza Living is gearing up to take on competition in Delhi/NCR and elsewhere in the country.
(The development was reported by Livemint)
