Oxfordcaps lands $8 million in funding on promise of providing ‘affordable’ student housing in India

• The startup which was launched in Singapore in April 2017, started operations in India in July 2018.
• Oxfordcaps has raised $8 million in a Series A funding.
• The startup now plans to expand from 200 beds to 6000 beds in India.

Student-housing provider Oxfordcaps has raised $8 million in a Series A funding from Times Internet, Kalaari Capital and 500 Startups.

The Singapore-based startup, which was launched in April 2017, provides curated lists of ‘affordable’ housing to students in India and Singapore online.

Oxfordcaps, founded by INSEAD graduate Annu Talreja and IIM-Calcutta alumni Priyanka Gera, offers three variations of housing options – dorms which start at ₹8,000 per head, residences for ₹12,000 per head and premium residences for ₹15,000 per head.

Since its launch in India, it has clocked a 30X growth in less than 10 months and has expanded from 200 beds to over 6,000 beds, according to its founders.

“We aim to reach 50X growth with the aim to acquire 10,000 beds and grow our operations across education hubs including Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Dehradun, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad,” Annu Talreja, CEO and co-founder, Oxfordcaps told Business Insider.

Affordable housing and co-living has become a big hit with Indian millennials. A survey done by property consultancy Knight Frank, stated that in India, 72% of millennials (18–23 years) have given co-living spaces a thumbs up. While it has been a popular concept abroad, in India renting for students has been a big issue because of landlords refusing to rent out to bachelors.

The student housing sector offers, in particular, currently generates $15 billion in revenue annually and the number is only expected to grow.

“More than 10.4 million students across India migrate to cities every year to pursue their academic dreams. However, student housing today suffers from a high level of fragmentation, lack of quality solutions, price transparency, reliability and complete lack of tech enablement of processes,” said Vani Kola, managing director at Kalaari Capital.

The company hopes its technology-based services will make it easier for students to lock down a place without having to go through the hassle of finding a house through a broker, which can be costly.

The student housing sector today has multiple players with the likes of Stanza Living which is backed by investors like Sequoia Capital. But Oxfordcaps believes that its international experience will help it serve the Indian market in an easier manner.

“The learnings from Singapore aside from our experience in managing Delhi and Dehradun for the past year have made us more adaptive to the market needs. We also believe that the student housing market is fairly large and under-developed as of now, and has room for 2-3 big players,” said Talreja.

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