Stanza Living raises $10mn from Sequoia

Gurugram-based student housing start-up Stanza Living has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, co-founder Anindya Dutta said in an interview. The start-up's existing investors, Matrix Partners and Accel Partners, also participated in the round. Last November, it had secured seed money of $2 million from Matrix and Accel. Founded in 2017 by Dutta and Sandeep Dalmia, Stanza Living is run and managed by Dtwelve Spaces Pvt. Ltd. At present, it offers housing accommodation to students across Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). The company plans to utilise the capital to launch its services in other cities, including Pune, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Indore. It is also looking to strengthen its leadership team, ramp up hiring, build technology and expand its network of operations with the fresh capital. Ashish Agrawal, principal at Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said: “Student housing is an established asset class in the West and we believe Stanza, with its scalable business model and strong economics, can create the asset class in India.” The start-up operates a full-stack hospitality model, controlling inventory, management and food services. It has 2,000 beds across 16 properties in Delhi-NCR. Dutta said it aims to expand to 10,000-20,000 beds within the next one year.