[Funding alert] Proptech startup YourOwnRoom raises $1.3M to scale its co-living business

Residential proptech startup YourOwnROOM has raised $1.3 million in seed funding from a group of investors that includes US-based investment firm Lotus Capital; Ravi Chaturvedi, former President of P&G; Narasimha Murthy, Co-founder of a US-based healthtech company; and a group of angel Investors based out of the US and Bengaluru.

YourOwnROOM's rental and property management business was set up in 2016 by Prabhat Kumar Tiwary and Sachin Joshi, both friends and colleagues from DXC. YourOwnROOM provides strategically located managed co-living and family homes to millennial tenants.

The startup manages 1,500 beds across Bengaluru and Pune and engages with residential asset owners - individual homeowners, developers, and building owners - in managing their rentals and properties.

In a statement, Sachin notes, “Since the beginning, we have acquired different sizes of residential assets and run them profitably on our platform with help of extensively implemented machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) on different internal processes of business. Our platform today provides the capability to bet on suitable asset and markets with long term tenants and improved returns”. 

The statement notes that YourOwnROOM has set a strong foundation over the last 3.5 years and has learnt the recipe to profitably scale its co-living business. “We have learnt that procuring the right asset at the right location and staying on top of operations using tech is critical for our long-term sustained profitable growth,” says Prabhat. 

YourOwnROOM has an annualised sales run rate of $1 million, an order booking of $4 million, and is operationally profitable. It is working towards scaling to 25,000 beds over the next couple of years by increasing its penetration in chosen 25 micro-markets in Bengaluru and Pune and adding 'Executive Housing', which will include large assets.

According to JLL, the shared residential rental market is $4.6 billion with a co-living penetration of 2.3 percent and will be $14 billion by 2023 with an 8.3 percent co-living penetration. YourOwnROOM, which is eyeing a larger share of the pie, considers Nestaway, Zolo, Colive, Stanza, and OYO as its key competitors.

The founders note that YourOwnROOM is in advanced conversations with a few developers and landowners to sign five- to 10-year MoUs for large assets. The startup has also initiated talks to raise a pre-Series A round in order to scale its business to one lakh beds in the next five years. 

(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)

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