Continuing his investment spree in Indian startups, Ratan Tata has invested an undisclosed amount in home rental startup NestAway Technologies. This investment marks Ratan Tata’s eighth investment in this year so far.
Founded in 2015 by Amarendra Sahu, Jitendra Jagadev, Smruti Parida and Deepak Dhar, NestAway turns unbranded, unfurnished houses into fully furnished and managed apartments and provides them at affordable prices to verified tenants.
The company’s home rental marketplace uses technology to provide better solution for shared home rentals to singles who are either professional or student. So far, the startup claims to have provided quality rental homes to about 5,000 tenants across six cities.
It has become increasingly difficult for young, college-goers or fresh graduates to find a liveable place, largely because of the unsafe environment of most Indian cities these days, and NestAway is trying to solve the problem.
At Nestaway, once a house gets listed, the startup makes sure that the upcoming tenant gets a full-furnished home, at its poshest best, thus providing an affordable housing solution to singles entering strange new cities for work.
It also provides services like house cleaning, plumbing and relocation. Its offerings include the obvious stuff like bed, mattresses, table, cupboard, etc., along with more luxurious items likeTV, washing machine, wireless internet connectivity, DTH and refrigerators. It also provides pillows and bed covers which it claims to change every week with monthly electric check-up.
Earlier, the startup had raised $12 million from Tiger Global and Flipkart. In March 2015, the company had raised $1.3 million in seed funding round from InMobi founder Naveen Tiwari and VC firm IDG Ventures India.
Ratan Tata has invested in more than 20 Indian startups, including Snapbizz, Moglix, First Cry, Cashkaro.com, Dogspot, Snapdeal, Ola, among others.
