ApartmentADDA was incepted in 2009 by Sangeeta (San) Banerjee and Venkat Kandaswamy and has its headquarters in Bangalore and Mumbai. The company works on a SaaS model. Its core is the centralized database of every aspect of an apartment complex – flats, residents, vehicles, accounts, staff, assets, vendors, etc. Multiple features revolve around these databases.
The front end is a simple app in the hands of the residents. Different packages are available based on different specific requirements of an apartment complex.
Sangeeta Banerjee, CEO & Co-founder, ApartmentADDA, interacted with BW Disrupt and shared her startups' present traction details and future plans.
Special Key FeaturesThe competitive edge of ApartmentADDA lies in not one, but four key factors that its competitors find hard to replicate, making it a prominent leader in the apartment management and accounting market. Its USPs are:
1. USABILITY + FUNCTIONALITYThe product is developed with the philosophy that every stakeholder in the Apartment Complex should be able to use the Product well. For each user group we have separate apps/portals with different user experience suiting the user's personal & utility requirements.
a) Residents of various backgrounds: The easy and attractive ADDA App. EVERY feature that's on the portal is also on the App.
b) Management Committee/Manager: The Manager/MC has a quick and easy ADDA Admin App, with exactly the features needed for quick admin work on the go.
c) Auditor/Accountant: The Accountant /MC have a Deep and comprehensive ADDA Portal. Top Auditors across India have been closing Society Books on ADDA for 6+ years
d) Security Guards: The Security Guard uses the GateKeeper App for digitally entering data of all visitors, staff, water tankers, etc.
2. ECOSYSTEMApartmentADDA is the only company with dedicated divisions growing a Quality Ecosystem of Accountants and Managers trained in ADDA and Apartment Management Best Practices. As a result our Customers are always ensured of continuous supply of trained resources who can operate the Data Entry or Facility Management utilising their ADDA.
3. INNOVATIONApartmentADDA innovates continuously to unveil highly practical Products for a Residential community. As we have done with Residential Social Networking and ERP, we are now positively disrupting the way Security works in a Residential Complex.
With 7+ years on experience in the apartment management domain, our R&D Team is working on GateKeeper presently. Complete Visitor Management, Domestic Staff Management, Association Staff Attendance with Evidence, Smart ID for Residents/Staff, Panic Alert for Residents, Material In/Out tracking (e.g., Water Tanker/Diesel/ Pump for repair), Automatic Gate Pass Printing - every aspect needed by modern Apartment Complexes for their Security is being custom-built by GateKeeper.
4. TRACK RECORDSince our inception in 2009, we have been on the journey of Rise High (our motto) along with a visionary user base. We proudly but cautiously uphold a 7+ year track record of hosting 5 Lakh HNI and Super HNI Users across 80 Indian cities, with zero complaints on Privacy and Security of Data.
Our standing as the best Partner for the Online Portal/App initiative of any Residential Complex is best demonstrated in these 100+ Testimonials from existing customers.
We essentially do 4 major things:ApartmentADDA provides every tool needed for smooth and efficient running of any Gated Community.
Any Gated Residential Community has 4 main requirements:1) A private social network for facilitating communication between owners, tenants and association members.
2) Facility Management solution for managing property and facilities worth in crores
3) A Billing and Accounting Solution to help management committee send bills, collect maintenance dues online, have automatic postings done and other accounting modules for being on top of housing society finance.
4) Security Management System to stop/dissuade people with wrong intentions from entering, make information collected at gate available to residents and management committee and ensure implementation of effective security processes
ApartmentADDA is the only comprehensive solution which has the capability to successfully fulfil all these requirements. Thus establishing them as the leader in this space with 15,000+ Apartment Complexes across India being hosted on ApartmentADDDA platform
What kind of future plans you have in mind?
Regarding ApartmentADDA:With more people adopting Apartment living, smart cities getting developed ApartmentADDA feels confident that its demand will grow manifold in the coming years. Further, with the growing demand for a comprehensive solution to manage all aspects of a gated community, many managing committees are expected to use ApartmentADDA’s services in the near future.
Our mission is to become the No.1 online product for gated communities globally. It hopes to achieve the same by constantly innovating, building products of high user utility, deploy & support with precision, and eventually expand to quality appreciating markets.
Regarding GateKeeper:Using ADDA GateKeeper, the security management platform from ApartmentADDA, in last 5 months 1,25,000+ visitor checkins happened across apartment complexes.
With tremendous development happening in the space of security hardware and home automation systems using artificial intelligence, IoT and machine learning, the GateKeeper is geared to be at the center of residential community security space.
With unique and deep knowledge of residential community challenges and strengths, GateKeeper team is confident of building the most effective innovation in the residential security space.
Funding Status and Monetization ModelApartmentADDA is funded by various angel investors, including Bhupen Shah and Raghu Tarra from Sling Media, Sharad Sharma from Nasscom products & iSpirt, Tushar Patel from a Global Investment Banking firm, and Zaheer Rattonsey from the Real Estate and Film Production domain.
The company is currently profitable and plans to increase its revenue through 2 levers: product line expansion and geographic expansion (International growth). It also plans on raising Series A funding when/if it is required in future.
Challenges FacedBeing a Product in the vertical of Society Management, we face the lack of well-defined laws in India that can guide the operations of a Society which is a registered organisation. Maharashtra is the only state which has such Govt. defined By-Laws for Societies. We look forward to the Indian Government creating robust National level Societies Act and detailed By-Laws which can make remove many ambiguities that exist in Society Accounting, Dispute Management etc.
In the absence of these clear laws and best practices ApartmentADDA fills the gap as it diligently studies and imbibes the best practices from societies pan India so Societies in any part of India can be best governed using these best practices.
Traction Details Today ADDA is India’s largest neighborhood network with 5,00,000+ users in 15,000+ Apartment Complexes across 80 Indian cities.
Our premium accounting & management package is used by 1,100+ apartment complexes across India. So far, ApartmentADDA’s services have been extensively used for powering 20 lakh forum discussions, 10 lakh helpdesk tickets raised to society office by residents, Rs. 100 crore payment gateway transactions, and managing maintenance dues of more than Rs. 2,000 crores.
Expansion PlansWith more people adopting Apartment living, smart cities getting developed ApartmentADDA feels confident that its demand will grow manifold in the coming years. Further, with the growing demand for a comprehensive solution to manage all aspects of a gated community, many managing committees are expected to use ApartmentADDA’s services in the near future.
The company plans to target all discerning and forward thinking residential gated community across India, mainly in Tier 1 cities like – Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, NCR, Kolkata, and Pune.
The dynamic company’s mission is to become the No.1 online product for gated communities globally. It hopes to achieve the same by constantly innovating, building products of high user utility, deploy & support with precision, and eventually expand to quality appreciating markets.
Market Size and OpportunityThe worldwide trend for Residence is Apartments – for the Convenience and Security it provides, maximization of a piece of land, as well as preference for properties that can be easily rented out. The global market Size of Apartments is estimated at 0.4 Billion Apartment Units. If Row House communities that also have Home Owners Associations are added to this, the size is well around 1 Billion Units.
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Vaishali Dar is a Senior Associate Editor with BW Businessworld and Editorial Head with BW Disrupt. She writes on corporates, start-ups, hospitality and travel
