Student housing startup Stanza Living gets fresh debt infusion from Alteria Capital

New Delhi-based student housing startup Stanza Living, run by DTwelve Spaces, has raised $5.7 million in venture debt from Alteria Capital.

This is the second debt infusion the startup has received from Alteria Capital in nine months. The company had, in March this year, raised $4.3 million debt from the venture debt firm. The current round takes the total debt infusion by Alteria Capital in Stanza Living up to $10 million.

One of the most capitalized players in the space, Stanza Living has raised $70 million in total from marquee investors, including Falcon Edge Capital, Sequoia Capital, Accel, Matrix Partners and Alteria Capital.

In its last known funding round, the company secured an undisclosed investment in an on-going funding round led by Falcon Edge Capital. The Series C round also saw participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Accel.

The company will use the fresh capital on accelerating its expansion across markets through organic and inorganic measures,  Anindya Dutta, managing director and co-founder, Stanza Living, said.

Stanza Living was founded in 2017 by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta. Dalmia is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Prior to Stanza, he was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group. Dutta, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad, was a real estate investor with Oaktree Capital and has worked at Goldman Sachs.

Stanza Living offers managed and shared fully furnished accommodation for students, especially those relocating to a new city. Its managed properties also offer common spaces for recreation and networking, besides food.

Residents at Stanza properties, the firm claims, get rewards and goodies through tie-ups with restaurants, fitness centres and dance classes. Students are provided guidance on online study materials and internship opportunities, as well as connections to the alumni network.

The company is on an aggressive growth path and has unlocked an inventory of more than 47,500 beds in less than 3 years across key hubs like Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. It is currently present in 10 cities

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

OYO Life, the fully managed housing rental division of the OYO group, has recently entered the student housing segment. It has signed agreements with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Plaksha University in Gurgaon to provide over 500 beds for their students.   

The SoftBank-backed company had 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.

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.

Alteria Capital

Alteria Capital, which recently announced the final close of its Rs 960 crore maiden fund, has deployed more than 60% of the corpus since its first close in March 2018.

The fund typically looks at post-Series A companies in the focus areas of consumer, technology and healthcare.

Most recently, it invested Rs 20 crore into hyperlocal logistics app Dunzo.

Local brand and event discovery app Little Black Book raised Rs 7 crore in venture debt through Series A debentures from Alteria Capital Fund – I.

Alteria also invested Rs 31 crore debt in healthtech startup mfine and Rs 80 crore venture debt in digital lending platform Lendingkart.