Co-living startup Zolo raises venture debt from Trifecta

Mumbai headquartered co-living space provider Zolo has raised $7 million in venture debt from Trifecta Capital. 

This follows the company’s $30 million Series B round in January this year from private equity firm IDFC Alternatives, investment management group Mirae Assets, Investcorp and venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners. 

The company, which is operated by  Zolo Stays Property Solutions, will use the debt for expansion.

“We will utilize these funds to further our investments in capex, product innovation and expand to newer cities in the new year aggressively,” said Nikhil Sikri, CEO of Zolo Stays Property Solutions, in a statement.

Founded in 2015 by Nikhil Sikri, Akhil Sikri and Sneha Choudhry, Zolo operates over 415 properties across 10 cities and has two products -- Zolo Standard and Zolo Select. The company plans to expand from 45,000 beds at present to 1 million by 2025. 

Zolo is also in talks to raise its Series C round, according to the statement.

“Zolo has showcased a strong record of revenue growth year on year with strong customer satisfaction and word of mouth referrals. At the same time, they have maintained a strong focus on unit economics and are likely to achieve profitability in the next 18 months,” said Nilesh Kothari, managing partner at Trifecta in the statement.

Funding in the co-living space has gained momentum over the past year, with both early and growth-stage investments. 

SoftBank backed hospitality and hotel chain, OYO Hotel, recently launched co-living solutions through its brand OYO Life in  October 2018. In September this year, Goldman Sachs backed online property rental platform Nestaway created a separate vertical Hello World for co-living properties. Apart from these, Stanza Living raised its Series C round in July led by Falcon Edge.

Among early-stage deals, Hyderabad based hostel, PG and co-living company PGO raised $2 million in November. Bengaluru based Grexter Living which raised $1.5 million from Venture Catalyst in January acquired budget accommodation service provider i2Stay.