Stanza Living secures Series C funding in a round led-by Falcon Edge Capital

Stanza Living, has secured undisclosed investment as part of an on-going round led by Falcon Edge Capital. The Series C round also saw participation from its marquee existing investors Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Accel Partners according to a statement.
Stanza Living is a tech-enabled student housing concept which is reimagining student living experiences in India in-line with evolved hospitality sectors like hotels and serviced apartments. Stanza Living is on an aggressive growth path and has scaled to 150x of operational inventory within just two years of launch. Present across key educational-hubs of Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Indore, Vadodra and Dehradun, the company is targeting an inventory of one lakh beds by 2021.Stanza Living has also committed to an investment of INR 250Cr to strengthen its pan-India presence. Commenting on their plans, Anindya Dutta, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living, said, “We are excited to welcome Falcon Edge Capital at this strategic point in our growth journey, where we are consolidating our presence as India’s largest student housing operator. To build our capabilities and strengthen footprint, we are considering a healthy balance of organic and inorganic growth measures, including, potential acquisitions of competitors. We will be deploying a significant part of the raised capital towards these efforts.”Sandeep Dalmia, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Stanza Living, said “The continued interest of the investor community is an endorsement of our growth story and business model. Our thoughtfully-designed spaces, professionally-managed services and technology-edge have helped us deliver a world-class residence experience, tailored to students’ needs and aspirations. The current investment will bolster our growth as we continue redefining student living in India.”
Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-founder, Falcon Edge Capital, said “Student housing is a large and underserved need globally, but in India the supply-demand gap is particularly stark because of a rapidly growing outstation student population. This outstation demand is currently being met by fragmented, unorganized and poor quality supply. Stanza aims to solve this demand-supply imbalance by providing standardized, affordable, high quality accommodation and essential value-added services to outstation Indian students. We believe the supply aggregation and value added services that Stanza aims to provide can generate significant value. We are excited to partner with Stanza and its current investors – Matrix, Accel and Sequoia. Anindya and Sandeep bring together deep domain experience, a track record of on-ground execution, robust unit economics and a significant and growing TAM.”
Stanza Living was co-founded by Sandeep Dalmia and Anindya Dutta in 2017. Dalmia is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering and IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to Stanza, he was a Principal at Boston Consulting Group. Dutta was previously a Real Estate investor with Oaktree Capital and prior to that, he worked at Goldman Sachs in London. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad.
Stanza Living’s proposition has created new-student living models encompassing a hospitality-led housing solution, community-building personal and professional development programmes, and a high-quality ecosystem catering to diverse student requirements.