NestAway Technologies, the company that deals in offering home rental service as a complete package is likely to raise fresh funds to the tune of $100 million and if the response from the investors is good, this amount may go up to $150 million. The overall sentiment appears to be upbeat, according to observers. This particular vertical has seen some new activity with hospitality startup Oyo launching it Oyo Living, a diversification from its rooms booking service. Oyo Living is more into co-living or shared accommodation addressing a specific need. In their model, tenants may get a room for themselves, but share the common facilities like kitchen and living room.
NestAway is possibly fortifying its position and having funds in the bank can be very useful while facing competition. This fund-raising effort may be with that objective only, it is observed. The last time, NestAway raised funds was in February 2018 when it garnered $51 million and the investors like Goldman Sachs Group and UC-RNT (a joint venture between University of California and Ratan Tata’s RNT Associates) participated in that series D round.
NestAway has created a good base for itself with some 50,000 tenants occupying 25,000 homes. There are only eight cities in which the company is having its operations now, significantly Noida, Bengaluru and New Delhi included in them. Some of the other investors in the startup include Tiger Global, IDG Ventures and Yuri Milner. Zenify, a family rental startup was annexed to NestAway last year and is bringing in substantial business, it is reported. NestAway’s monthly collections in the form of rent top $7 million.
But NestAway has to keep looking over its shoulders to see what the competition is up to. There are others like Ziffy Home and Co-Ho, apart from OYO Living as mentioned above. Oyo is also having plans to expand into more cities next year.