India: Bengaluru-based home rental startup NestAway’s coliving subsidiary The Hello World has acquired coliving provider StayAbode for an undisclosed sum.
Founder and CEO Jitendra Jagadev told the Economic Times that StayAbode was acquired with a capacity of 2,000 beds, and the company is now looking for more such acquisitions. “We are targeting to acquire at least two to three coliving operators each having an enterprise value of US$10 million or more,” he said.
Founded in 2015 by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev, NestAway is an online marketplace for home rentals, which turns unfurnished houses into fully-furnished and managed apartments and rents them to preverified tenants. It currently manages 150,000 units across 15 cities.
StayAbode was founded in Bengaluru in 2016 – its model supports “the lifestyle of the young, single sociable household”, with facilities provided including payment of utility bills, laundry and daily housekeeping.
In September 2019, Nestaway invested US$10 million in its coliving and student living entity, The Hello World, which currently has 20,000 beds and plans to add 30,000 more by the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year through both organic growth and acquisition.
