After a fresh round of Rs 30 crore ($4.4 million) funding, in addition to Rs 85 crore ($12.3 million) raised earlier, Stanza Living hopes to continue the momentum and target an inventory of one lakh beds by 2021. Anindya Dutta and Sandeep Dalmia, Co-founders, Stanza Living told Zee Business Online that the company's business has grown seven times since last year and they are excited about its journey ahead. "We have been on an aggressive growth path and have scaled the business 7x since last year, unlocking an inventory of 15,000 beds across Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Indore, Vadodra and Dehradun in 2019. We want to continue building momentum as we target an inventory of one lakh beds by 2021 and are excited about our journey ahead," they said.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The student housing company aims to use this amount to bolster its network expansion, people and technology capabilities. "We will be allocating the capital to continue bolstering our network expansion, people and technology capabilities. Through this strategic partnership, we will also be working on developing interesting financing and funding structures relevant to our business," the co-founders added. 

Stanza operates a tech-enabled student housing concept with a full-stack business model that puts students at the heart of its product and service design, development and execution. The company plans to expand its presence across multiple student markets in the country in the coming months.

The latest round of funding comes in form of debt funding from Alteria Capital, India’s largest venture debt fund. The earlier funding was raised from marquee global investors like Sequoia Capital, Matrix and Accel Partners.

Watch this Zee Business video -

The co-founders said that the student housing sector in India is largely unorganized and dominated by fragmented mom-and-pop operators. They said it also further suffers from several infrastructure and service quality gaps which impacts millions of students migrating within the country for higher education.

This is where Stanza hopes to make a difference by providing better service. 

"The entry of professionally-managed, tech-enabled, full-stack operators like us, which own the delivery of the complete product and service experience will transform student housing in India. We have also seen a surge in interest from landowners, developers and property investors as well, who now understand the value proposition of partnering with an organized and fast-growing player like us, and the opportunity for higher yields and rent maximization in this segment," Dutta and Dalmia said.

Talking about the latest funding, Ajay Hattangdi, Managing Partner, Alteria Capital said that Stanza is the type of game changing venture that they wanted to partner with. "Anindya and Sandeep have exciting growth plans for the company and it is our pleasure to support Stanza through our debt funding solutions along with access to our network and partnerships," he said.