After experiencing difficulty in finding a decent accommodation in Bengaluru-IT Capital of India, Amarendra Sahu, who is holding a degree from IIM Bangalore, realised the need to develop a social infrastructure for affordable housing. Thus, the NestAway journey began.
Speaking to DH about the journey, Amarendra Sahu, Co-founder and CEO of NestAway Technologies said, “We were a bunch of friends from Odisha who moved to Bengaluru in 2004 for work, and dreamt of a ‘nest away from home’ that we could call our own. After three months of frantic search, we found an owner who was kind enough to offer his house to four of us for six months deposit in exchange for a little more rent. The chapter was frustrating, tiring and, at times, humiliating.”
The company, which is now present in Bengaluru, Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), Pune and Hyderabad — manages homes on the owner’s behalf and charges 12.5% of the monthly rent generated from the house as a fee.
Through its services, NestAway is working towards resolving biases and barriers faced by urban migrants. Sharing his views about the company, Sahu said, “We help to find, book and move-in to a rental home of choice across Indian cities — all from within an App. Not just that, we help to move-in, ask for services from tap leakage to door lock broken, pay the rent and finally move-out — again all within an app. Whatever is the budget, we have something for you.”
Started in 2015, the company currently has 450 staff and has raised Rs 250 crore funding from IDG Ventures, Tiger Global, Milner’s fund — DST Global. It also received funds from Ratan Tata and Flipkart and InMobi founder Naveen Tewari, in the last one year. Sahu said the four founders of the company, including Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev, together hold 51% of the company’s stake.
NestAway offers ready-to-walk in homes and provides rentals based on the requirement of the tenant—a bed, a room or a complete house. NestAway now has 7,000 house owners and 25,000 tenants with it. Speaking about the business strategy, Sahu said. “We have adopted a concept of area partners who will work as agents/brokers with our company in establishing our presence and network in the localities. These partners work on a commission basis.”
At present, the company has 500 partners on its list. “We are looking at increasing this number to 1,000 in the next two years. Besides, we are looking at taking the company to the next level with franchisee model. In Bengaluru, we have started two franchisees on an experimental basis. Following the success of this model, we will be doing soft launches in Mumbai and Chennai in near future,” Sahu added.
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