Introduction

Homversity is organizing India's massively unorganized student housing industry, by digitalizing the processes of searching, booking, managing, and serving student accommodations such as Hostels, PGs, Dormitories, and more with a synced fleet of platforms like Homversity, Homversity Host, and Homversity tenant apps. Homversity is a registered trademark and is owned by Dwellerin Network Private Limited based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It has over 20,000 beds in over 14 cities in India, as of September 2019 and is growing rapidly.

Founder’s Journey of Homeversity

Students had to face a lot of problems in finding a good hygienic hostel, PG with good food in an affordable fees. To solve this problem Saurav Kumar Sinha established Homversity to organize and digitalize India’s massive student housing and co-living industry.

The first significant issue Saurav faced after taken admission in UPES Dehradun's B.Tech Computer Science programme was locating the perfect housing, complete with wholesome meals and the essentials. Following extensive study and brainstorming sessions, he came to the conclusion that millions of students both domestically and internationally struggle with this issue. Following these brainstorming sessions, the concept for Homversity was developed. Following his idea's presentation in multiple public and private competitions, he received a number of market comments that enabled me to improve and refine the concept as he went. The pivotal moment occurred at Rise Conference, the biggest technology conference in Hong Kong, Asia, where his venture's concept gained momentum and successfully raised its early rounds of funding.

Homversity is a startup that began as a little initiative for an annual business plan competition in a small hostel room. Its goal is to improve the system so that students may find the best living options at the most affordable prices. Homversity is a hassle-free option that is easy to use, practical, and efficient. It provides real feedback from previous residents, actual photos of the rooms and hostel grounds, and complete audits to verify that all student houses are conducive to learning and health. In addition, it provides free and aided advance reservations for parents and students, as well as round-the-clock, individualised support for any questions or issues.

Homversity recognised that the student housing market was opaque, highly disorganised, and teeming with agents and brokers who demanded exorbitant fees. In order to eliminate this urgency, the company made the decision to offer the sector a more organised form by appropriately matching students with property owners in a way that would save time and money for both sides. Homversity was able to shift people's perspectives and disrupt the status quo by understanding the fundamental needs of the market and maintaining a close relationship with its students by offering full end-to-end support from reservation to move-in. Having started out with just a few homes in its network in 2018, the company has made significant progress and is now providing services in over 12 cities. With more than 300 student residences and over 2600 beds, its network has expanded to assist thousands of students and answer parent inquiries across the country. A straightforward platform for prioritising books for discovery has developed into a comprehensive ecosystem that supports the student housing sector as a whole.

Business Model of Homversity

Homversity, with the help of the smart digital housing platform, students and working professionals can reserve rooms based on their interests. For booking, there are neither brokerage nor additional costs. Additionally, diversity helps property owners run and manage their assets more effectively.

Homversity seeks to digitise and streamline the process of finding, reserving, and managing safe, expertly-verified hostels, private guest houses, and other types of rental accommodations. In order to become the segment's pan-India market leader, we intend to use the pre-series A capital to expand our operations throughout the nation and strengthen our position in the Indian market. The company is investing in technology to make its services more scalable, targeted, and efficient. The platform’s offering will be improved with new a property management suite, and several data-driven solutions which will provide a richer experience to its customer base.

At present, thirty different cities are using the Homversity app and website, which provides over 1.1 lakh beds for students. In order for a hostel to be included on Homversity, it must fulfil at least 70% of the 145 criteria that have been set to rate hostels. Using its platform and technology, Homeversity also assists property owners in managing and operating their properties. They service about 1,10,000 beds in India and are active in over 30 cities. With 35 million young people enrolling in more than 50,000 universities and colleges, the Indian education industry is expanding. The majority of these students are unable to find housing in the already-diminishing number of college dorms or hostels. For many students, PG and private housing are the only options.

The founder claims that although over 3 crore students enrol in our nation's universities and colleges each year, only 10–12% of them are able to locate housing on campus. The primary goal of Homeversity is to use technology to close this gap and structure this sector in accordance with international norms. Homversity is a one-stop shop where people can easily look for and reserve PG or hostel rooms at the best prices possible—there are no brokerage fees or additional costs. The business is presently in the middle of a fresh Pre-Series A fundraising round.

Business Financials

Homversity generates income from three different sources. The first model takes a commission from bookings; the second charges ₹30 rupees per bed per month via a Software as a Service (SaaS) app; the third model provides maintenance services.

They have estimated that bookings for the fiscal year 2023–2024 will be between ₹25 and ₹30 crores. Their bookings for the fiscal year 2023–2024 have already surpassed ₹4 crores by September. They succeed in doing so with a 10% conversion rate and an average stay of three months. Their monthly income is ₹2 lakhs, while their spending are ₹8 lakhs. Their burn rate, at 6 lakhs, is three times that amount, though.

In anticipation of the 2024–2025 fiscal year, they predict ₹5.6 crores in company revenue and anticipate a profit of ₹2 crores.

Homversity began its services by catering to a few Tier 1 cities. Now it has spread its operations and gets business from cities like Kota, Dehradun, Ahmedabad, Indore, Bengaluru, Delhi & NCR which are part of an ever-increasing list of cities in its portfolio. Handling diverse sets of customers in different regions has allowed Homversity to deepen its understanding of markets that has enhanced its stability.

Shark Tank Pitch

During his Shark Tank India appearance, Saurav Kumar Sinha presented pitch for his startup, Homversity. He began his pitch by highlighting the problems that students encounter when looking for housing.

In addition, he provided information about his company strategy, how it differs from that of his rivals, and their revenue streams. With over 140 criteria, Homeversity has developed a "golden playbook" for hostels. To be included on their platform, a hostel must at least meet 75% of the requirements.

Following the first pitch, the creator of Homeversity requested INR 65 lakhs for 2% stock at a 32.5 crore valuation.

The following are some of their most significant exchanges with the Sharks:

Anupam Mittal (Founder & CEO - People Group, Shaadi.com) inquired about Homeversity's clever strategy and the rationale behind its moniker as a "smart hostel platform." According to Peyush Bansal (Founder & CEO – Lenskart.com), he had previously worked on this business concept but eventually closed it down. In response to Aman Gupta's inquiry on their income plan, Saurav provided information on their three monetization strategies.

Vineeta Singh (Co-founder & CEO - Sugar Cosmetics) was curious about their retention but wasn't too pleased with Sauarav's response. Regarding their profitability, Ritesh Agarwal (CEO - OYO Rooms) inquired, but the founder said that they are not yet a viable business.

After all the discussions, Sauarav was not able to get any investment offer and had to leave without raising any funds. Homversity was not able to secure any deal from Shark Tank India season 3 because of various reasons given by the Sharks.

Conclusion

When it comes to replacing outdated, conventional methods of administering and keeping an eye on dorms, apartments, and hostels with fantastic features, Homversity is the best option. You don't need as many staff to manage and administer your home because it is 100% safe, secure, and gives you complete control over it from anywhere you are using your phone. Homversity is a good tool for managing and keeping both workers and guests in hostels, PGs, apartments, and other properties of all shapes and sizes. Owners of rental properties can use our software to effectively manage staff and expenses, track and collect payments, and manage occupancy.