Student housing startup Stanza Living secures Series C funding from Falcon Edge Capital

New Delhi-based student housing startup Stanza Living, run by DTwelve Spaces Pvt. Ltd, has secured an undisclosed investment as part of an on-going funding round led by Falcon Edge Capital.

An official statement said the Series C round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Accel Partners.

“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,” said Anindya Dutta, managing director & co-founder of Stanza Living.

In March 2019, Stanza Living raised $4.4 million in venture debt from Alteria Capital with the startup planning to use the funds to unlock an inventory of one lakh beds by 2021 and expand across India.

Stanza Living has received commitments worth $50 million in its on-going funding round, The Mint reported.

The report also said that the startup is in talks with multiple equity investors to raise additional capital for the current round,and is reportedly valued at $300 million.

Stanza Living was founded in 2017 by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta. Dalmia is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering and IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to Stanza, he was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group. Dutta, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad, was a real estate investor with Oaktree Capital and has worked at Goldman Sachs. 

Stanza Living offers managed and shared fully furnished accommodation for students, especially those relocating to a new city. Its managed properties also offer common spaces for recreation and networking, besides food. 

The company operates with a full-stack business model in Delhi-NCR and plans to expand its presence across multiple student markets in the country in the coming months.

Residents at Stanza properties, the firm claims, get rewards and goodies through tie-ups with restaurants, fitness centres and dance classes. Students are provided guidance on online study materials and internship opportunities, as well as offered connections to the alumni network.

“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,” said Navroz D Udwadia, co-founder of Falcon Edge Capital.

“This demand is currently being met by fragmented, unorganized and poor quality supply. Stanza aims to solve this demand-supply imbalance by providing standardised, affordable, high-quality accommodation and essential value-added services to outstation Indian students.” 

Deals in the segment

• March 2019: Student accommodation startup OxfordCaps raised $8 million (Rs 56 crore then) in a Series A funding round led by Times Internet, a subsidiary of media house Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd., including other investors.
• August 2018: Delhi-based University Living, an online global student housing marketplace, raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-Series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and LetsVenture.