“A trusted hassle-free search for a convenient stay.”
Are you a working employee wandering for a rental house? Your PG rents bothering you? Are you in need of proper amenities in your apartment? ZoloStays supports you in all aspects to provide you with the best hospitality and required needs for either students or working employees staying away from hometown.
ZoloStays, India’s online application which offers co-living spaces, rental homes, and apartments. The company provides a quality experience at budget prices with fully furnished and serviced rooms and co-living spaces which are fully managed and long-term affordable stays.
The Founding Team
ZoloStays Property Solutions Pvt is a Bengaluru-based real-tech startup founded on June 3, 2015, by alumni Akhil Sikri, Nikhil Sikri, and Sneha Choudhry. The real-tech startup helps students and singles find accommodation with wholesome food.
Nikhil is an MBBS graduate from AIIMS and practiced as a doctor in Singapore IMH. Later he pursued business management at the ISB Hyderabad. For a short period, he worked in the corporate sector with Cerner Corporation and Deloitte where he met his life partner Sneha Choudhry, who later became co-founder of Zolo. Whereas, Akhil Sikri is a computer science engineering grad from IIT Delhi, and is a brother of Nikhil.
From Edu-sector to Housing sector
Earlier, the team worked on a product called “AugBrain” related to educational technology between 2014-2015. Due to a lack of a right model for developing the product the team decided to start something unique which could impact more lives. Thus, began Zolo- a flat aggregator, hostels, and PGs accommodator in India enabling clients to book rooms and accommodations via online.
Business Model and Working of ZoloStays
ZoloStays works on a revenue model which has two segments for benefitting singles and students.
The working of Zolo is a methodical yet straightforward process. The real-startup takes residential towers from builders on a lease, which is called as “Zolo Select”, where it manages and provides all amenities to tenants. In this “ Select” segment they provide 40% accommodation to 40 years old and above occupants.
Another model or segment called as “Zolo Standard” where they lease out small buildings like G+5, G+4 in which premium amenities like club, tennis court, pool, etc., don’t exist and these buildings consist of 50-70 rooms.
Generally, graduates prefer to choose Standard segment which comes at an average of Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month for twin-sharing. Where in, Select side rooms starts from Rs 12,000 on an average.
Funding
ZoloStays raised a total of $35M in the latest Series B funding round. Nexus Venture Partners, IDFC private equity, InnoVen Capital, and Mirae Asset Global Investments are the investors to the startup. The company funding began with $1 million from Nexus Ventures Partners. In FY 2018 stats, its revenue had immense raise to Rs 26.4 crore.
The recent $30 Mn fundings to ZoloStays also helped in fueling up the startup with a strategic investment from OLX, Chennai-based Olympia Developers, and Pani Computers Family Office. The startup plans to achieve INR 100 Cr ($14.4Mn) in revenue in the next financial year. The company has also partnered with large builders to provide fully managed accommodations, based on the concept which is popular in cities like New York and Hong Kong.
Competitors
NoBroker, NestAway, CoHo, ZiffyHomes are some of the rental based startups competing with ZoloStays.
Snippets
ZoloStays operate rooms in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Gurugram, Hyderabad, and Kota. The startup claims to have 16,000 ‘live beds’ and 50,000 ‘locked-in beds under Zolo Standard and Zolo Select offerings category. Providing amenities like Housekeeping, DTH, WiFi, Concierge, Repairs, and Food. The leased period with the builders are typically between 3-9 years, an agreement with clients is for 11 months and provided the rental rate is 25% lower than the industry standards with higher customer satisfaction.
