Zolo, the co-living brand in India, introduces Zolo Scholar, which marks its foray into the student accommodation segment. Zolo Scholar is a new category of properties specifically designed for students with added features like extra security, common study areas and better services and amenities.
The development comes within a month after Zolo had raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners and IDFC Alternatives, along with participation from Mirae Asset, a South Korea-based independent financial services group.
Zolo
already has a two-pronged model, Zolo Standard and Zolo Select to cater
to different needs of the working class. With this addition, the
company plans to capture the student sector. Currently, the Scholar
model is set across 2 cities viz. Kota and Bangalore. Zolo has 3
properties with a capacity of 400 beds, and 7 properties with a capacity
of 522 beds in Bangalore and Kota respectively.
Nikhil Sikri, Co-Founder & CEO of Zolo, commented, “We
believe student housing is a largely untapped market. Students
constitute a big chunk of our customer base and we see a lot of growth
potential in that segment. With the addition of this category, we aim to
provide affordable solutions to the housing problems of all the
sections of the society.”
Founded in 2015 with the aim to redefine the living experience in India, Zolo offers fully managed and affordable, ready to move in rooms/apartments, which offer clean spaces, homely food and caring staff. It’s a full stack brand and a platform which takes accountability of the entire customer experience. Zolo’s tech platform provides the customer, a button to manage “Life” on the phone.
Earlier this month, the company announced its entry into the Mumbai market. With a strong presence in 9 cities Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon, Kota, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida and Coimbatore, the company manages 175 properties with over 17K beds across the country.
In student accommodation space, Sequoia India-backed Stanza Living is perhaps the most funded startup, which has managed to raise funds from high-profile investors including Matrix India, Accel Partners and
Last month, Stanza Living launched Stanza Estate app, as part of its growth strategy to reach one lakh bed-capacity by 2021. The app will allow property owners, brokers, real estate consultants and developers, to partner with Stanza Living in an effective manner, to create bespoke, high-quality student accommodations.