Housing Students
The market size for student housing is estimated to be $15 billion with more than 10.4 million students across India migrating to cities every year to pursue their academic dreams. However, student housing is fragmented and lacks quality solutions, price transparency, reliability and tech-enabled processes.
A company called OxfordCaps is creating a dent in the unorganised student housing industry and standardising it at an unprecedented scale through technology that enables a high end user experience for students with the preference of millennials.
From a humble start with 50 beds in Singapore in 2017, Oxfordcaps has grown ten-fold and currently manages 500 beds, housing students from leading Asian universities including the National University of Singapore, INSEAD Business School and the Singapore Management University.
In India, OxfordCaps launched students housing in 2018 with 200 beds across three locations. It now operates 10,000 beds and aims to increase the number to 200,000 beds across India over the next three years. Oxfordcaps is Asia’s top most branded and tech-enabled student housing company and provides a hassle-free and technology-driven living experience to Gen Z students in India and Singapore. It aims to expand to over 12 cities and to standardise student housing with design thinking and technology at the core of the experience.
The brain behind OxfordCaps is the company’s C00, Priyanka Gera, an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta. Along with her roommate from their days as architecture students in Delhi, Annu Talreja, she ideated to create a branded chain of student accommodation. The idea actually germinated while they were still students, but after their experience in companies like JLL and the Marriott Group, they had a more definite and structured approach to solving a problem that plagues over a 100 million students across the Asia Pacific.
The company has raised $10.4 million through investors who include 500 startups, Times Internet and Kalaari Capital. The ongoing Series B round of funding is of $50 million. Oxfordcaps is bringing in an international experience in managing student housing.
“Our focus on community building with regular events and engagements is highly appreciated and has special affinity among students. Our need for community building is deeply rooted and is also reflected in the way we include community spaces in our designs,” says Gera.
By 2021, the company aims to redesign the student living experience across Asia with over two lakh beds. It aims to grow its presence in India to over a lakh beds across 35 cities encompassing all major education hubs.
