Indian startup in the student housing space, Stanza Living has received fresh funding as part of its Series C round. The key investor in this round is Falcon Edge Capital, though the amount invested has not been disclosed. The startup already has some top VCs as existing investors, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Accel Partners and they have also joined in this round.
Stanza Living manages properties in some India’s key education hotbeds like Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Indore, Vadodra and Dehradun. The company has set an ambitious target of creating an inventory of one lakh beds within the next two years. The company may expand its geographical presence for which it has allocated funds to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
Anindya Dutta, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living, said, “We are excited to welcome Falcon Edge Capital at this strategic point in our growth journey, where we are consolidating our presence as India’s largest student housing operator. To build our capabilities and strengthen footprint, we are considering a healthy balance of organic and inorganic growth measures, including, potential acquisitions of competitors. We will be deploying a significant part of the raised capital towards these efforts.”
“The continued interest of the investor community is an endorsement of our growth story and business model. Our thoughtfully designed spaces, professionally-managed services and technology-edge have helped us deliver a world-class residence experience, tailored to students’ needs and aspirations. The current investment will bolster our growth as we continue redefining student living in India,” Sandeep Dalmia, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living, added.
Stanza Living has adopted, from the very beginning, a student-centred rental housing that goes beyond just providing them a place to live in. Their model includes delivery of food and other amenities calling it a full-stack business model. The plans for expansion of the business may go on to become quite useful to more Indian students no matter where they travel to take up their educational pursuits.
Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-founder, Falcon Edge Capital, said “Student housing is a large and underserved need globally, but in India the supply-demand gap is particularly stark because of a rapidly growing outstation student population. This outstation demand is currently being met by fragmented, unorganized and poor-quality supply. Stanza aims to solve this demand-supply imbalance by providing standardized, affordable, high quality accommodation and essential value-added services to outstation Indian students. We believe the supply aggregation and value added services that Stanza aims to provide can generate significant value. We are excited to partner with Stanza and its current investors - Matrix, Accel and Sequoia. Anindya and Sandeep bring together deep domain experience, a track record of on-ground execution, robust unit economics and a significant and growing TAM.”