Student accommodation platform Amber has raised $21 million in its first round of institutional funding, led by Mumbai-based private equity firm Gaja Capital, according to ETtech report.
The round comprises $18.5 million in fresh equity and the remaining in venture debt from Lighthouse Canton and Stride Ventures.
The funds will be used for global expansion and to enhance its offerings for property managers and students. The company plans to grow its operations by enlisting more suppliers and property managers, while also focusing on scaling the demand from both international and domestic students. It will invest in innovation on the product development front.
“We are looking at scaling aggressively in the markets that we are currently already into. The UK, Australia and Ireland is the market that we started with, and we are the largest operator and platform in these markets, but at the same time, a lot of fund allocation would go into expanding into new markets like the US, Canada, and Europe as well,” cofounder and chief executive Saurabh Goel told ET.
Founded in 2017 by Goel and Madhur Gujar, the Pune-headquartered company primarily focuses on Indians studying in the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada, as the student accommodation market in these countries is worth $60 billion, Goel said. “This market size is growing as more supply is coming into the picture,” he added.
Talking about the challenges of house hunting, Goel said, “When it comes to ordering food, you have Zomato and Swiggy. When it comes to shopping online, you have Flipkart and Amazon, but when it comes to renting a house, the experience is still very broken…So that’s where we saw a huge gap that there is no better customer experience when it comes to renting a house.”
Commenting on the investment, Gopal Jain, managing partner, Gaja Capital said, “Global increase in student enrolments underpinned by a long-term study-abroad trend is fuelling the organised student housing market. We are deeply impressed by Amber team’s ability to solve a critical pain point for both students and property managers.”
