Tiger Global, Chiratae co-lead $10-mn round in home rental firm Nestaway

Bengaluru-based online home rental startup Nestaway Technologies Pvt. Ltd has raised $10 million (around Rs 70 crore) in a fresh round of funding co-lead by existing investors Tiger Global and Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures).

According to the company’s latest filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Tiger Global and Chiratae will chip in with $5 million each.

The latest funds infusion came in at an estimated $200 million post-money valuation, as per TechCircle estimates.

It is unclear whether the latest infusion is part of the $51 million Series D funding round that the company had announced in March last year or part of a new funding round.

The Series D round, which was led by Goldman Sachs and UC-RNT, also saw the participation of Chiratae Ventures and Tiger Global. Other media reports had stated that Nestaway’s valuation was expected to reach anywhere between $180 million and $200 million. It could not be immediately ascertained whether this infusion is part of that $51 million.

E-mail queries, phone calls and WhatsApp texts sent to co-founder and chief executive Amarendra Sahu seeking more information on the latest funding round did not elicit a response at the time of filing this report.

In February, media reports had mentioned that the four-year-old startup was in discussions to raise $100 million (Rs 714 crore at current exchange rate) from Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd and venture capital firm Shunwei Capital.

Nestaway, which is one of the most well-funded players in this space, was founded by Sahu, Deepak Dhar, Smruti Parida and Jitendra Jagadev in January 2015. It turns ‘for-rent’ apartments into managed, fully-furnished houses and provides them to pre-verified tenants.

The venture initially targeted single working professionals but has expanded its services to families. Currently, the company offers both shared and private rooms for individuals as well as properties suited for families.

Nestaway, which is operational across 13 cities across the country, claims to have catered to more than 73,000 customers through 55,000 tenants and 25,000 homes in Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Noida, Mumbai and Pune, among other locations.

In February, the company had launched Nestaway Startup Lab, an incubation programme aimed at consumer startups.

For the financial year ended 31 March 2018, Nestaway’s revenue growth grew at a slower pace and its losses widened.

The firm’s operating revenue rose nearly 70% to Rs 41.86 crore, from Rs 24.72 crore during the previous year. Its net losses increased to Rs 156.81 crore in 2017-18, from Rs 97.72 crore the previous year.

Last year in July, the company also strengthened its top deck by hiring former Amazon executive Sandeep Daga as its chief financial officer and former RBS technical lead Ravindra Singh Rawat as vice president of technology.

Nestaway competes with peer-to-peer (P2P) property listing portal NoBroker and branded and managed paying guest accommodation provider ZoloStays. It also faces competition from budget hospitality chain OYO, which entered the shared residential space in October last year.