Student Housing Startup Stanza Living Raises Funds From Billionaire Sam Zell

For students, who have to leave their cities, towns or villages to pursue higher education in other areas, finding a suitable stay can be a laborious task.

Addressing this challenge as an opportunity to provide a comfortable and secure stay for such students, Delhi-based student housing startup Stanza Living has raised undisclosed funding from Equity International, a real estate-focused investment company founded by US-based billionaire investor and philanthropist Sam Zell.

According to an ET report, the recent investments have come as a part of the Series C funding round of the student housing startup. In this funding round, Stanza Living has so far raised $50 Mn funding led by another US-based investment firm Falcon Edge Capital.

Reportedly, the investment of Sam Zell’s Equity International has come at the same valuation of $300 Mn, which Stanza Living achieved during the Series C funding round.

Founded in 2017 by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta, Stanza Living creates a student-centric proposition with new-student living models. The spaces provided by the company encompasses service-led housing solutions, proprietary community-building personal and professional development programmes and an ecosystem catering to diverse student requirements.

Stanza Living claims to offer a full-stack business model, which involves designing spaces and tailoring its services to cater to students’ specific needs and desires. The company offers student accommodation for prices ranging from $97.4 (INR 7K) to $348.2 (INR 25K) per month.

As of March 2019, the student accommodation platform claims to have grown exponentially— scaling its business 7x since last year and unlocking an inventory of over 15,000 beds across Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, Vadodra, and Dehradun in 2019.

Stanza Living is also planning to foray its business in other cities as well. Recently launched in Coimbatore, it is targeting to launch its student-centric services to Ahemdabad and Chennai.

In March 2019, Stanza Living has raised $4.4 Mn in venture debt from Alteria Capital. Earlier, in September 2018, Stanza Living had raised $10 Mn in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital with participation from existing investors — investment firms Matrix Partners and the California-headquartered Accel Partners.

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