Bengaluru-based co-living space Grexter has raised $1.5 million as part of its Pre-Series A funding round from Venture Catalysts. Grexter aims to leverage the funds for enhancing the inventory it offers as well as to ramp up its technology architecture. Notable investors Arisht Jain of Samyakth Group ; Vikas Bohra, Vishal Shah participated in round, in addition to the participation from developers, HNIs, real estate professionals, family offices, private equity funds, wealth management companies and others.
Grexter provides fully furnished co-living spaces wherein the rent covers all amenities and services like bills, internet, DTH, daily housekeeping etc. Problems such as hefty brokerage fees, low-quality homes, sky-high rents and deposits, and picky homeowners are all eliminated when one moves into a Grexter property.
Grexter is currently at approximately 1500 beds across Bengaluru and plans to significantly increase that number in the near future.
Speaking on the investment, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder and President of Venture Catalysts, said, “Venture Catalysts is on a mission to identify promising ventures that actually plug a gap in the market and address pertinent consumer needs. The rental accommodation sphere caters to one of the most basic needs of consumers yet it continues to be highly fragmented and plagued with key problems pertaining to quality, transparency and high brokerage fees. Grexter eliminates all these lacunae with its unique and tech-driven business model. It is also creating a robust co-living ecosystem in India and we are certain that it will successfully capture a lion’s share of the USD 20 billion accommodation rental market through its innovative approach.”
Grexter was founded by IIT-Madras alumni Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi. Pratul has been an investment banker with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank and has also worked with a venture capital fund called Acumen. Nikhil has worked in Reliance Industries and also been the Operations Head of Gopigeon, a NEXUS-funded logistics startup.
“We believe in perfecting the practice before taking a big leap. Having bootstrapped the venture, we’ve climbed our way up firefighting and understanding every use case scenario possible. We are confident that with the mentorship and the influx of funds from Venture Catalysts we’d be able to accelerate the growth of Grexter and invigorate our tech platform as well. We envision to scale up rapidly and accommodate over 5000 beds by the end of 2019. This is the start of another exciting chapter in our growth story,’ Pratul Gupta, Founder, Grexter said in a statement.