Indian home rental startup Nestaway is finding new doors for its business. Having established its stronghold in the Silicon Valley of India – Bengaluru, the startup is looking to play a bigger role in the Indian startup community.
In February 2019, Nestaway announced that it would launch an incubation program to help startups kick-start their businesses. What’s interesting is that Nestaway has taken its main offering—rental—and combined it with incubation.
Open to all entrepreneurs regardless of their age, gender, educational background, or location, select startups will be provided with a home and a “work pad” with all essential amenities for the entire duration of their incubation.
But what made a home rental startup turn to incubation? The founders believe entrepreneurs need a space to test, fail, and learn what works. Given the costs involved in starting a business, the ability to start up lies with very few who can afford to do so or can garner seed investments.
“Therefore, we wanted to allow startups to use our customer base to get access to customers without any fee or expectation. While the investment market funds with money (used for customer acquisition), with Nestaway Startup Lab, we wanted to fund with our customer base,” said Amarendra Sahu, CEO & Co-Founder of Nestaway Technologies.
The Nestaway Labs incubation program is also an ‘equity-free’ program that lets bootstrapped startups test products and services. This means they don’t have to relinquish a stake in their business in exchange for free accommodation or mentorship.
Bengaluru is one of the biggest startup hubs in India. It is also Westaway’s core market, with over 25,000 homes in the city alone. On Wednesday, the company also announced its expansion to Chennai, its 13th city in India.
Separately, Nestaway is also in talks to raise funding. While the company didn’t want to comment on speculation, reports suggest that Nestaway is looking at raising $100 million. The startup is also witnessing a rise in competition with hospitality unicorn Oyo Rooms entering the home rental space with Oyo Living.
One of Nestaway’s biggest challenges since its inception in 2015 is gaining the trust of landlords. This is also an important part of their growth plan.
“We are trying to fight the biases ingrained in homeowners’ minds due to generations of lack of trust,” a Nestaway spokesperson told Business Insider.
That problem has led the startup’s founders to believe that housing is a question of entitlement rather than availability.
“Therefore, NestAway offers owners concrete promises: guaranteed and timely r,nt; trustworthy tena, ts; and a rental agreement governed by speedy arbitration. We think creating trustworthy systems and market-linked mechanisms is a better way to fight prejudice,” said the spokesperson.
