India’s largest student housing brand - Stanza Living has begun full-swing operations in Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Indore, Pune, Baroda and Dehradun as part of its pan-India expansion plan. With this, the company has reached a national inventory of 22,000 beds across ten cities, growing more than 150x in 24 months. The company has also clocked INR 20 crore revenue in FY18-19. As part of its growth strategy, Stanza Living has been focusing on expanding network, strengthening its technology platforms and increasing team strength across cities.
Talking about their journey, Anindya Dutta, Co-Founder, Stanza Living said “We aim to reimagine student living for the millions of students migrating in the country, with our hassle-free, tech-enabled and service-led housing experience. Our entry into these strategic educational hubs is a step towards building a pan-India student living brand, where residents can be assured of comfort, convenience and community experience at transparent rents. We are confident of reaching a target of over one lakh beds by 2021.”
Elaborating on their offerings, Sandeep Dalmia, Co-founder, Stanza Living, said “Students in India expect their next place of residence to be an extension of home. Yet they are often forced to compromise on infrastructure and service quality. Our comprehensive offering covers all daily hassles – nutritious food, unlimited laundry, WiFi, professional housekeeping, tech-enabled security, and responsive feedback mechanism – in a comfortable residence space. Additionally, our engaging personal and professional well-being programmes – Stanza Social and Stanza Springboard, help build a vibrant environment for students to live and grow together.”
The company operates a full-stack model, ensuring end-to-end management of all student residences under its operations. This is done through a comprehensive technology platform that ensures seamless delivery of services like food, WiFi, laundry, housekeeping, security set-up (CCTV cameras, biometric access) and more. Focused on smart-living, the company also provides students the Stanza Resident App, which has been designed to get a pulse of student needs, provide a responsive feedback management system and enable overall ease of communication.
Since its inception in 2017, Stanza Living has raised nearly USD 17 million (INR 115 Cr) from investors, becoming the largest funded student housing operator in the country. The company now has 100 student residences across 10 cities, namely, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Indore, Pune, Baroda, Dehradun and Jaipur. Stanza Living is backed by marquee global investors like Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners and Alteria Capital.
According to real estate consultant JLL, there are nearly 37 million students pursuing higher education in India, of which an estimated 11 million migrant students seek accommodation. Student housing sector is currently a $15 billion industry. While student housing spaces are already big segments in the US and Europe, India is still at a nascent stage but growing at a rapid pace.
