Marquee venture capital investor Nexus Venture Partners has led a Rs 26-crore round of funding in Bengaluru-based ZoloStays Property Solutions, which owns and operates managed accommodation platform Zolo.

The series-A round also includes a venture debt component of Rs 4.5 crore, extended by venture debt firm InnoVen Capital. According to the documents filed by the company with the registrar of companies (RoC), Nexus has been allotted 4,153 series-A preference shares at a premium of Rs 48,300 with a second investor, Nestavera Investment Advisory Solutions, pumping in an additional Rs 1.67 crore.

Till date, the mobile and web-based company has raised about Rs 37 crore across its seed and pre-series-A rounds. ZoloStays chief executive Nikhil Sikri confirmed the closure of the round, which took place late last month. He told the less-than two year-old venture will use the proceeds towards expansion and to further augment its technology platform.

“We plan to use the capital raised to grow aggressively , to reach over 12,000 beds, up from our current 5,000 beds, and also expand to Chennai and the National Capital Region by the end of this year,” said Sikri.

Founded in June 2015 by Sikri and his brother Akhil, an IIT-Delhi graduate, ZoloStays operates out of Bengaluru and Pune. The company partners with real estate builders to offer working professionals affordable, fully managed accommodations, ranging from Rs 5,000-17,000 per month, which includes food, utilities and housekeeping.

“We believe there is a large market gap in the managed affordable living space targeted at students and young professionals moving into larger cities for employment and education opportunities,” said Sameer Brij Verma, Director, Nexus Venture Partners.

The company typically signs service agreements with builders for 5-15 years, and for 11 months with potential residents, and undertakes the end to-end management of the properties. Zolo, which primarily takes over new constructions, has about 24 properties in its portfolio and has signed up an additional 40.

“Zolo’s first principles approach to building a scalable cost-effective execution engine managed by their strong technology platform has allowed them to emerge as a leader in the market in a short duration,” Verma said.

The business model is similar to WeLive, the apartment rental business launched by coworking unicorn WeWork last year, Separately, Common Living, the co-living startup venture, is also reported to have tied up with real estate developers in New York to offer furnished apartments with amenities.

Source: ET Tech