6 PG Service Startups in India

Finding a place to live in a city is next to impossible if you don’t know anything about the place. Online startups have changed the way we look at rental services. Instead of hanging around at a property dealer’s office, you can sit at home and browse flats from your bedroom. There are many startups trying to make their mark in the market with the same concept. Here are 6 pg service startups functioning in India:

Name
NoBroker

About NoBroker

NoBroker is the world’s largest online C2C property search portal connecting flat owners and customers directly by eliminating brokerage with the use of technology. Globally, online real estate players are working along with brokers. We are leading the paradigm change in real estate from B2C to C2C. We created an algorithm which identifies and bans brokers from the portal. We are solving two of the most significant customer pain-points in house hunting. First is spurious listings by brokers on online websites which leads to huge inconvenience to customers and second is the high cost of transaction. NoBroker addresses these pain points by eliminating the broker & connecting genuine customers. We have solved a complex problem in the most simple and straightforward way. What sets NoBroker.com apart from other online real estate portals is that it analyses the entire value chain of house hunting and offers smart solutions, replacing everything with technology. This is something that offline brokers can never match & offer. NoBroker is redefining the entire paradigm from B2C to C2C. This has not been done anywhere in the world at the scale at which we are operating.

Looking for a house should be a happy experience and that’s what we want to do with NoBroker. We are market leaders in the four cities (Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai & Pune) that we operate in, in terms of owner listings. The concept of NoBroker is disruptive for the entire industry. We are trying to set order in an unorganized sector. No one believed that the real estate space can work without brokers. Today we are the largest ‘Customer-to-Customer’ network of genuine owners and tenants.

Founders name
Amit Kumar Agarwal- CEO & CoFounder
Akhil Gupta- CTO & CoFounder
Saurabh Garg – Mentor & CoFounder

Founding Date
March, 2014

Traction Details And Future

NoBroker is the World’s largest ‘C2C’ ecosystem in real estate with 9 Lakh user base.They have grown 20 times in the past 1 year across all key dimensions: website visitors, registered users and new property listings. We are getting 20 lakh visits on our site every month across desktop & mobile app. As on date, we witness 5 lakh unique customer connections every month. This leads to a saving of INR 18 crores in brokerage every month.

The Startup raised Series B funding of $ 10 million in Feb 2016 led by BEENEXT & Digital Garage along with other investors namely BEENOS,Qualgro and Mr. Mamoru Taniya of Asuka holdings. Existing investor SAIF Partners has also participated in this round. NoBroker have raised Series-A funding of $ 3 million from SAIF Partners and Fulcrum Ventures in Feb 2015.

Monetization model

Right now our single minded focus is on revenue. In this business, monetization is very easy since customer is already paying a hefty fee. We have recently started a freemium model where the customer can contact 9 owners for free and close the deal. Or the customer can opt for the 999/- plan where they get 25 owner contacts. The other plan is for 1999/- where the customer gets 50 owner contacts and a designated relationship manager who will look into the customer’s requirement. We will break even in next 18 months. As and when we start seeing our cities break even, we’ll expand to more cities in India and then take the product global given the strong presence of our investors in Southeast Asia and Japan.

Name
CoHo

About CoHo

CoHo is a tech-enabled venture pioneering the concept of co-living spaces in India with its offering of managed apartments and villas. We are transforming the way students and young professionals (between the age of 18-32 millennials) live in India. The idea is to bring in superior living experience at affordable price points, by leveraging technology for seamless user interactions with end-to-end home services like housekeeping, repairs, maintenance, high-speed internet and other utilities.

Founders Name
Uday Lakkar & Amber Sajid

Founding Date
11th August, 2015

Traction Details & Future

They have more than 250 residents across Delhi NCR right now which includes both working professionals and students. CoHo takes an asset light approach with a very high life cycle value of a customer with annuity cash flows, with a typical contract life of 12 months and strong traction of 50%+ growth month on month and 80%+ avg. occupancy.

CoHo plans to go in depth in each city before expanding geographically to other Tier 1 cities of India and also will be serving family audience soon apart from students and young professionals. Also introduction of latest technology products like smart locks, virtual reality, energy saving appliances will help scale the business.

Name
Zocalo

About Zocalo

Zocalo, owned by Zocalo Realtech Pvt Ltd is a mumbai based online platform for broker- free rental accommodations. Zocalo is a mexican word meaning, “public square or plaza”. This startup aims to be the perfect marketplace for ideal property search. Zocalo connects individuals directly with the rental accommodation providers. The startup turns unfurnished houses and villas to furnished and managed apartments. It is currently based in Delhi NCR.

Founder’s name
Uday Lakkar

Founding Date
May 2014

Traction Details and Future

The startup has an inventory of over 75000 pgs and hostel beds. Zocalo has over 10,000 accommodation listings. The New Delhi based startup adds 6,000 new listings every month. It’s android app has seen over 1,500 downloads so far. Zocalo has also launched CoHo Partners for properties from third party operators and will act as a marketing and branding partner.In August 2015, it raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from startup accelerator GSF’s Rajesh Sawhney, MakeMyTrip co-founder Sachin Bhatia and others. Zocalo has tied up with home service providers for housekeeping, repairs, WiFi etc. The startup will also provide pg like amenities and meal services in their CoHo partner rooms. They look forward to expand themselves in other cities.

Name
Nestaway

About Nestaway

Nestaway is the fastest growing home rental network based in several cities including Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad and Pune. They help you find, book and move in a rental home of your choice across the cities. Nestaway also caters to your needs after they help you move in- tap leakages or door locks broken if any. It acts as an efficient network and also help you pay your rent all within an app. Every nestaway home is equipped with a Tv, Wifi, sofa, fridge etc. Hence, the monthly charges also include maintenance costs.

Founders Name
Amarendra Sahu, Jitendra Jagadev, Smruti Ranjan Parida and Deepak Dhar

Founding Date
January 2015

Traction Details and Future

Nestaway has over 1800 homes in Bangalore. It has launched in Hyderabad and Gurugram, Pune and Noida in 2015. They have already expanded to Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata this year. The startup’s app has over 100,000-500,000 downloads. Rent starts from 6000 per month. Investors see Nestaway gaining reaching upwards to $40 billion over the next 5 years. They are trying to create a network of nesties ie the singles who accommodate the rooms by organizing parties, get-togethers and parties; it is the non revenue generating part of their venture.

Name
Zelo

About Zelo

Zelo, based in Bangalore and Pune is India’s first chain of branded Pgs which provides standardized facilities to their users. Zelo is a young funded startup which creates accommodations for bachelors, parties and paying guests. They aim to provide branded pgs at the best prices and amenities. Zelo is making a better place for shared rentals in India.

Founders name
Akhil Sikri, Sneha Choudhry, Nikhil Sikri and Isha Choudhry

Founding Date
June 2015

Traction Details and Future

Zelo currently has 1000 satisfied customers in 80+ pgs in Bangalore and Pune. The app has around 5000-10,000 downloads and they plan to start and expand their services in Hyderabad, Delhi, Kochi, Chennai, Kolkata, Noida and Gurgaon. Their goal is to provide affordable pgs with best amenities.

Name
Homers

About Homers

Homers is one of India’s leading Consumer to Consumer home rental platform.The home-seeker and home-owner deal directly with each other without the hassles of middlemen. At homer.s you have the power of searching through thousands of houses and filter according to your prefered neighborhood. Once you find a suitable listing, you can schedule a visit and they will fix an appointment. Homers helps you with the required paperwork and other services needed to move in to your house. Currently it provides rental services in only Gurgaon and Noida.

Founders Name
Tarun Chaudhry and Vineet Pathania

Founding Date
May 2015

Traction Details and Future

The company has 4,500+ listings and plans to expand itself to 6 other cities by this year. Instead of a brokerage fee, homers charges users a small “trust fee” for every visit you do. The urban real estate market in India is around 14 million annual transaction. And a negligible part of this is currently enabled by online players, a problem that Homers aims to solve by focusing on enabling actual transaction through its platform via tech enabled discovery, reliable information, and a services stack to customers. The idea is to terminate the middlemen and provide direct C2C services along with multi level verification and and transaction support.