New Delhi-based student accommodation startup Stanza Living has raised around ₹73 crores in a round led by Sequoia Capital. Other existing investors that participated in the round include Matrix Partners and Accel Partners.
The funds raised will be used to boost technology, scale core leadership, along with expanding the network of operation across multiple markets.
Stanza Living was founded by Sandeep Dalmia, a former executive of Boston Consulting Group, and Anindya Dutta, a former executive of Goldman Sachs, in 2017. It provides a technology-enabled student accommodation concept that puts the student as a consumer at the heart of its product and service design.
Talking about the investment, Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said, “Stanza’s team and their execution is impressive, and Sequoia India is delighted to partner with them in their vision to provide quality housing to students in India. Student housing is an established asset class in the west and we believe Stanza, with its scalable business model and strong economics, can create the asset class in India.”
Stanza Living has grown from 100 to 2,000 beds in the last four months, witnessing a spectacular growth. With 2,000 beds across Delhi NCR, the startup is looking to scale to new cities including Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, and other cities by the end of this academic year.
The student accommodation startup is looking to accelerate its growth by five times to target 10,000 to 20,000 beds in the next 8 months, by the end of this academic year.
In November 2017, Stanza Living raised ₹13 crores in a funding round led by Matrix Partners and Accel Partners.
Other players in the co-living space competing with Stanza Living include Zolo, NestAway, Placio, CoLive, ZiffyHomes, and CoHo Stayz, among many others.
Last month, ZiffyHomes raised ₹82 lakhs from Y Combinator, as part of Y Combinator’s summer cohort 2018.
The home renting space is pegged at $32 billion, according to FastFox, a home rental startup. The demand for student accommodation has been on the rise and many startups are looking to bridge that gap.