Stanza Living raises Rs 73 cr from Sequoia India, others

Student accommodation startup Stanza Living Tuesday said it has raised Rs 73 crore in funding, led by Sequoia India with participation from existing investors Matrix and Accel Partners.

The two investors invested Rs 13 crore in November last year.

"We will use the funding to strengthen three key pillars of our business - technology, people and network of operations. We will also leverage the funding to expand to newer cities like Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad as well as locations that are education hubs, in the next 12-18 months," Stanza Living co-founder and Managing Director Anindya Dutta told PTI.

He added that since its inception in April last year, the company has grown to operate about 2,000 beds and will scale it up significantly in the coming months.

Dutta said the student housing segment in the country offers immense potential but remains largely unorganised.

"Globally, this is a USD 200 billion market. However, in India the category is largely unorganised. Our estimate is that it is a USD 15 billion market currently and is poised to grow to USD 45 billion over the next few years," he said.

The company is also strengthening its operations and will triple its team size from the current 75 people in the next six months.

"We are aggressively hiring not just technology staff but also from other sectors. We are bringing on board hospitality graduates who can manage the facilities," he said.

Dutta said there are about 11 million students who seek accommodation but only 3-3.5 million are able to secure place in the campus housing. The rest have to look for housing options like PGs and hostels around the campus.

Stanza Living provides a package of accommodation, food, Wi-Fi and other services around the educational institute, charging them between Rs 7,000-20,000 a month. It has also partnered with over 100 colleges to offer accommodation options to students.