Stanza Living acquires student housing startup YourShell
Starting out with nine rooms and 20 tenants in December 2016, YourShell now stands at a tenant base of 595 students spread across 18 properties.
YourShell, Delhi NCR-based student accommodation startup on Wednesday said that it has been acquired by at an undisclosed amount.
Established in 2017 by Delhi University students Sunny Garg, Shaifali Jain, Vishesh Khunger, Gaurav Verma and Vartika Sharma, YourShell is among the youngest startups to raise venture debt under the Government of India’s StandUp India programme. It was an operationally profitable business across its portfolio of properties at the time of the deal.
Speaking about the acquisition, Shaifali Jain, Co-founder, YourShell, said,
“We have been closely following Stanza Living’s journey, and admire their operational expertise and how they have scaled their business pan-India. When we learnt that they were looking at strategic acquisitions for growth, we believed it was the ideal time to pass on the reigns to the experienced team at Stanza Living and become a part of their rapid-scale story.”
“Apart from high-quality residences, YourShell delivered a robust service offering, along with an exciting array of value-added features, including a library, gaming zone, career counselling sessions, and internship guidance. We believe a strong resonance with the student community was our top USP, and the underlying factor of our success," added Sunny Garg, Co-founder, YourShell.
YourShell Founders(L:R) Vartika Sharma, Vishesh Khungar, Gaurav Verma, Shaifali Jain, Sunny Garg
Starting with nine rooms and 20 tenants in December 2016, the startup grew to a tenant base of 165 students in July 2017, and now stands at a tenant base of 595 students spread across 18 properties. It is generating a monthly revenue of Rs. 80,00,000, with its annual turnover touching Rs 20 crore.
The professional student housing segment has been on an upward surge in the last few years, attracting global investors and large-scale real estate partners.
Started in 2017, Delhi-based Stanza Living has so far raised $70 million from investors like Falcon Edge Capital, Sequoia Capital, Accel, Matrix Partners, and Alteria Capital. It has 200 centres across 14 cities in India, with a total capacity of 55,000 beds, which are being provided in the price range of Rs 4,000 to Rs 25,000 per bed.
Edited by Suman Singh