NestAway acquires smaller rival Zenify to increase market share

NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the home rental startup, has acquired its smaller rival Zenify to expand its offerings for families, in addition to its core business for singles. The startup manages a homeowner’s rental property throughout the rental life cycle, from showing the house to a prospective tenant and closing the rental agreement to collecting rent on the owner’s behalf and assisting the tenant and owner during move-out. Amrendra Sahu, co-founder and CEO of NestAway, said that “We hope to disrupt and restructure the social infrastructure of housing for both singles and families in times to come”.

The startup, founded in 2015 by Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev, started out as an aggregator of shared, furnished apartments for bachelors, before adding full homes for families. It manages more than 10,000 homes across the country. It has raised $43 million from major investors such as Tiger Global, IDG Ventures India, Flipkart Ltd, former Flipkart executive Sujeet Kumar, Yuri Milner and Ratan Tata. The startup has also raised about $5-6 million in venture debt from InnoVen Capital. It reported net revenue of INR5.8 crore in FY16, however, at a record loss of INR37 crore.

Ankur Agarwal, co-founder of Zenify, said that “With the coming together of the two biggest players in the real estate services segment, we will leap ahead of the competition. By making the entire system transparent and value driven, and with a strong underlying philosophy of homes that do not discriminate, NestAway and Zenify will work together to create a strong home rental ecosystem in India”.