Meet NestAway- One of the Fastest Growing ‘’Online Home Rental Network’’ in India

With a goal of restructuring the social infrastructure of affordable housing in the country, NestAway provides rental solutions using design and technology. From providing support while moving-in to a new place to providing maintenance service to paying rent, all this can be done through the app.

BWDisrupt interacted with Amarendera Sahu, Co-Founder & CEO of NestAway Technologies.

Tell us about NestAway’s journey so far, how did it start?
NestAway was co-founded by Amarendra Sahu, Deepak Dhar, Jitendra Jagadev and Smruti Parida, all batch mates from NIT Suratkal in January 2015.

The home rental segment in India has undergone significant transformation over the years but biases and prejudices still exist. This creates an atmosphere of distrust between homeowners and tenants. NestAway understood the issues and thought there can be a simpler, faster and transparent solution to the problem.

Over the past two years, NestAway has positively impacted the lives of homeowners, tenants on its platform through superior quality services and several value-added initiatives.

What are the unique key services and how do you think you stand out from your competitors in the same space?
NestAway services are holistic in nature as they provide end-to-end solutions. Presence in 8 cities, internal transfer of tenants within the network with competition does not provide. With the tenants just having to pay for their beds they connect the tenants with utility service providers for DTH & WiFi connectivity in fully furnished homes.

NestAway tenants enjoy a quality life when compared to any other paying guest. NestAway also helps tenants & homeowners both with maintenance issues.

Cities like Bangalore and Mumbai normally ask for a deposit of 10-11 months whereas NestAway ensures that their tenants only pay 2 months’ deposit. NestAway rentals start from as low as Rs 5000/- a month. Their app further makes the entire house hunting process quick, hassle free and seamless. And needless to say, there is no brokerage or brokers involved when one is renting a bed or home.

How is NestAway revolutionizing the home rental space using design and technology?
NestAway connects owners & tenants, not just closing the rental transaction but also facilitating after-sales services such as payments, agreements and service & repairs through the use of technology. With few clicks on the app, prospective tenants can find, book and move into a rental home of their choice across India. The app with more than 100 thousand downloads, makes it convenient for anyone to locate homes through 3 easy steps: Search-Schedule-Book. Tenants can also pay their rent using the app and avail other services listed on the App.

What is currently your funding status, monetization model and traction?
NestAway has received USD 43.25 million funding till date. The last funding received was $30 million in Series-C led by Tiger Global in April, 2016. Some of the key investors include Tiger global, IDG, ratan tata, flipkart, Yuri Milner.

NestAway works on the annuity business model where instead of a one-time fee, we charge a monthly commission on the actual rent generated from the house. From a five-house pilot, NestAway now has 20,000+ tenants and 4,500+ owners in a period of just 18 months.

What are the future plans you have in mind for the company?
Today NestAway is one of the fastest growing companies in the ‘Online Managed Home Rental Network’. It currently operates in eight cities - Bengaluru, New Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad and Mumbai – and plans to cover more cities by 2020.

Beyond finding homes for urban migrants, NestAway will also look at providing verified services like cooks, maids, grocery delivery and job portal going forward.

Please share with us some of the biggest Industry challenges that your business faces?
Trust deficit is the biggest challenge facing the industry. On norms like Security deposit, rent payment in cash, painting charges, the mind set needs to change. Adding to it is the lack of value-added services like providing cooks, maids, drivers & others that can indeed make a difference to the lives of all stakeholders involved.

Homeowners wanted tenants who could keep their reputation and homes safe conforming to certain guidelines while tenants always looked for homeowners who understood their needs and did not discriminate against them.

NestAway tries to mitigate risk of transactions and communicate its true value propositions so that people choose NestAway for the right reasons. NestAway has only scratched the surface and will continue penetrating cities and will target new segment such as families.

How big is the market and what are the opportunities in this space?
The home rental market in India is worth more than USD 10 billion with 10 million renters across top 10 cities. It is estimated that the market will continue to grow by 10-15% every year for the next 5 years at least. (CAGR of 10-15% until 2020)

People are increasingly open and willing to relocate due to factors like higher education, better job opportunities, marriage and urbanization. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and urban migration as a phenomenon is here to stay. The potential is so immense that despite being the largest player in the sector NestAway has tapped only a fraction of the market.

How is NestAway aiming to resolve barriers and biases faced by urban migrants?
With the strong underlying philosophy of ‘no city is a stranger’ and ‘homes that do not discriminate’, NestAway is working towards creating a strong home rental ecosystem in India. It plays the role of a trust broker by breaking down barriers between tenants, homeowners and the society. These are being achieved by educating stakeholders, creating robust tenancy frameworks, building communities (e.g. Nesties.org), setting new quality and service benchmarks, etc.

By making the entire system transparent, convenient and value-driven, NestAway is always a reliable option for someone who has just moved to a new city.