Home Rental Startup ZiffyHomes Acquires Rival Nivaasa

Home rental service startup ZiffyHomes today said it has acquired Gurgaon-based home rental platform Nivaasa, in an all-cash deal. The company however did not disclose the deal value. The acquisition comes two months after the company had acquired competitor Fella Homes in February this year.

"The acquisition will help to expand in the premium category apartments across India, given that they are currently based in Delhi NCR," ZiffyHomes said in a statement.

Founded in 2016 by Louis Pereira, Reuben Noronha and Gaurav Sood, Nivaasa provides home seekers with an integrated online-to-offline house-hunting solution. The startup currently operates in Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Prior to starting Nivaasa, the three founders have worked in the consulting industry at Bain & Co, McKinsey & Co, and Essex Lake Group.

The startup created its own furnished living spaces and provides a house hunting service to home seekers looking for rentals in the open market. This apart, it also provides furnished and rental homes to people and allow them to customize the amount of furniture they desired to rent.

Nivaasa acquisition will add 12 community Hubs to ZiffyHomes' rental business in Gurugram. The Ziffy Technologies platform currently has close to 2,000 rooms along with supply of around 500 studio apartments listed on it across Delhi/NCR.

In January, ZiffyHomes announced a seed funding round of Rs 2 crore from investors Bikky Khosla, chief executive at Trade India, Anirudh Agarwal, managing director at Shree Sharda Group, and Ajay Kaul, CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks, among others.

It is to be noted that Fella Homes, which Ziffyhomes acquired this February, had too acquired smaller rival Lifepad Homes in July 2016.

House rental market is said to be worth ~$30B market and still has huge gap unmetIn the online home rental space. Ziffyhomes competes with startups like NestAway, Placio, Homigo, Stanza Living etc.

Last month, Bangaluru-based NestAway had announced a whopping $51 Mn fundraise from Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund and the University of California. In May 2017, NestAway had too made acquisition of residential rental management company Zenify for an undisclosed amount.

Recently in February, student housing startup Placio raised $2 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round from Prestellar Ventures. Around the same time, co-living startup CoLive raised $1.8 Mn (INR12 Cr) in a round of funding led by Ncubate Capital Partners.

In November 2017, another player of student accommodation, Stanza Living raised $2 Mn in funding from investment firms Matrix Partners and California-headquartered Accel Partners. Another similar startup Zolo had raised $5 million from Nexus Venture Partners, in January 2017.

The above news was first reported in Times of India.

Home Rental Startup ZiffyHomes Acquires Rival Nivaasa

Home rental service startup ZiffyHomes today said it has acquired Gurgaon-based home rental platform Nivaasa, in an all-cash deal. The company however did not disclose the deal value. The acquisition comes two months after the company had acquired competitor Fella Homes in February this year.

"The acquisition will help to expand in the premium category apartments across India, given that they are currently based in Delhi NCR," ZiffyHomes said in a statement.

Founded in 2016 by Louis Pereira, Reuben Noronha and Gaurav Sood, Nivaasa provides home seekers with an integrated online-to-offline house-hunting solution. The startup currently operates in Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Prior to starting Nivaasa, the three founders have worked in the consulting industry at Bain & Co, McKinsey & Co, and Essex Lake Group.

The startup created its own furnished living spaces and provides a house hunting service to home seekers looking for rentals in the open market. This apart, it also provides furnished and rental homes to people and allow them to customize the amount of furniture they desired to rent.

Nivaasa acquisition will add 12 community Hubs to ZiffyHomes' rental business in Gurugram. The Ziffy Technologies platform currently has close to 2,000 rooms along with supply of around 500 studio apartments listed on it across Delhi/NCR.

In January, ZiffyHomes announced a seed funding round of Rs 2 crore from investors Bikky Khosla, chief executive at Trade India, Anirudh Agarwal, managing director at Shree Sharda Group, and Ajay Kaul, CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks, among others.

It is to be noted that Fella Homes, which Ziffyhomes acquired this February, had too acquired smaller rival Lifepad Homes in July 2016.

House rental market is said to be worth ~$30B market and still has huge gap unmetIn the online home rental space. Ziffyhomes competes with startups like NestAway, Placio, Homigo, Stanza Living etc.

Last month, Bangaluru-based NestAway had announced a whopping $51 Mn fundraise from Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund and the University of California. In May 2017, NestAway had too made acquisition of residential rental management company Zenify for an undisclosed amount.

Recently in February, student housing startup Placio raised $2 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round from Prestellar Ventures. Around the same time, co-living startup CoLive raised $1.8 Mn (INR12 Cr) in a round of funding led by Ncubate Capital Partners.

In November 2017, another player of student accommodation, Stanza Living raised $2 Mn in funding from investment firms Matrix Partners and California-headquartered Accel Partners. Another similar startup Zolo had raised $5 million from Nexus Venture Partners, in January 2017.

The above news was first reported in Times of India.

Gurgaon-based CityFurnish is a Rental Startup Trying to Free People From the Burden of Owning

India's furniture market is growing at a celebratory pace. According to "India Furniture Market 2012-2022" report by Research and Markets, the country's furniture market is anticipated to cross the $27 Billion mark by 2022. Increasing urbanisation, rising trend of nuclear families, and expanding working population base coupled with surging demand for new designs of furniture are some of the factors contributing to the growth of the market. Gurgaon-based CityFurnish is one such player trying to take advantage of the growing market.

Co-founded in September 2015 by Neerav Jain and Saurabh Gupta, Cityfurnish has grown to become one of the top three and a rapidly growing furniture, furnishings and appliances rental brands in India. The startup, which is working towards revolutionising the on-demand rental economy in the country, has made renting more affordable and easy than it ever was in the South Asian country.

CityFurnish aims to solve the temporary furnishing requirements of the mobile generation of India. It helps individuals and corporate to furnish their homes or offices by renting furniture and appliances without the burden of heavy investment and commitment. It provides an optimised solution to lifestyle solutions for home and offices alike. The main mission behind the startup is to free people from the burden of owning so that instead of investing in expensive items, people can rather spend on experiences and other valuable things.

Initially starting its journey in the furniture segment, Cityfurnish has become one of the most diversified rental player in the market with products ranging from furniture, furnishings, appliances and fitness equipments. Apart from residential furniture, the company also registering a growing presence into the commercial and hospitality segments.

The growing rental market has attracted quite a few players in the game focused on taking a huge piece of the succulent pie. Furlenco and Rentomojo are Cityfurnish's main competitors when it comes to the organized sector. On the unorganized sector side, it is facing healthy competitive from players like Sab Rent Karo, Rent Macha and FlatFurnish among many others.

According to CityFurnish, the thing that sets them apart from all their competitors is their unique amalgamation of technology and product that is entirely focused on fulfilling customer need. Since the startup manufactures and designs their furniture at their own facility in Jodhpur, it provides them tremendous advantage over their competitors. By having a controlling over the quality and cost of their products, the rental startup is able to manage inventory at more than 95 per cent efficiency than its major competitors and at the same time enable a faster collection of their payments.

Apart from all the above, the startup's alliances and B2B2C model helps them in growing and extending their work to larger group of users. The startup claims to be one of the first to start with Office Furniture Rental in India and partner with Commercial Projects.

While its journey has been quite pleasant so far, Cityfurnish is focused on conquering more territories and churning out more success stories. It had recently extended its operations in Mumbai and is planning on launching smart furniture with technology advancements like Sofa with Bluetooth speaker and USB charging slot etc. into the Indian furniture rental market. In order to do so, it will be harnessing the power of IoT for inventory management and financial control. It is also working on building up its technology to improve product management and financial control. The startup is also on the path to launch additional modular and space saving furniture in the cities of Delhi and Bangalore.

About The Founders:

CityFurnish is the combined success story of two strong individuals, Neerav Jain, Founder and CEO of the company and Saurabh Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of the company.

A Commerce graduate from Delhi University, and Business & Enterprise Management post-graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Neerav landed his first job as an Export Manager with Pepperfry. He later went on to attend the Lean Launchpad and Business Innovation course at Utrecht University. Having worked in various key positions at Climpex Furniture and his family business Chandra Shekhar Exports before finding CityFurnish, in a career spanning 3 years, Neerav has extensive experience in furniture industry in managing sales, marketing and Business management (B2B and B2C) and formulating strategies for growth with an overall business perspective.

Saurabh Gupta, on the other hand, is an M.Tech from IIT Roorkee who has worked with big names such as Vodafone and Amdocs in a career spanning 10 years. He currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer and is based out of company’s Pune office. Saurabh is a skilled technology professional and possess expertise in digital marketing.