Warburg Pincus Acquires 24.48% Stake In Student Housing Startup Good Host Spaces

American private equity firm Warburg Pincus has bought a significant minority stake in Good Host Spaces, one of India’s leading operators of on-campus student housing facilities. 

Warburg’s affiliate Baskin Lake Investments has acquired HDFC Ltd.’s 24.48% stake along with a primary investment in the company. 

Baskin Lake and existing shareholder Goldman Sachs will also invest additional capital to fund Good Host Spaces’ future growth objectives. 

Launched in 2017 by Nimesh Grover and Stanley D’britto, Good Host Spaces claims to be India’s largest third-party on-campus student accommodation service provider. The company claims to have a presence in five cities, operating approximately 18,000 beds at universities such as Manipal University, OP Jindal Global University and Shoolini University. 

In the student housing space, Good Host competes with several other Indian startups such as Stanza Living, Oxfordcaps and Placio. Besides these, hospitality startup OYO’s managed housing facilities vertical, named OYO Life, has in the past tied up with universities such as IIT Delhi to offer budget-friendly housing to students.

Buoyed by the backing from Warburg, Good Host is aiming to partner with more universities to extend its portfolio to 50,000 beds. “This partnership delivers critical growth capital to universities helping them augment their educational capabilities while modernising and introducing global best practices to the student housing assets,” said Anish Saraf, managing director at Warburg Pincus India. 

According to market and consumer research company Statista, the market size of the student housing industry across the country was estimated to be approximately INR 2,400 Cr in 2020, up from 1,267 Cr in 2018. 

Good Host believes that with the coming of India’s new National Education Policy and a renewed focus on bringing Indian universities at par with their global counterparts, the focus will also shift towards developing high-quality and professionally managed student housing facilities.