Student.com, a London, UK-based global marketplace for student housing, raised $60m in its first external funding round.
Backers included VY Capital, Horizons Ventures, Expa, Hugo Barra, and Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon (who are the founders of Spotify).
The company will use the funds to continue to expand its operations worldwide.
Launched as Overseas Student Living (OSL) in 2011 by Luke Nolan, CEO, who was later joined by co-founders Shakil Khan and John-Paul Jones, and rebranded as Student.com in 2015, the company offers an online platform that matches students with professional landlords currently serving students in 11 languages, across web, mobile and social.
On the platform, students can explore options, browse by university, neighbourhood or property to learn about all the options open, chat to an expert, call the reservations team for free advice, request to book the room that best suits their needs and budget and complete the booking request form.
The platform then assigns the user to a personal booking consultant, who will contact him/her to confirm details such as choice of room, floor, view, roommate, tenancy length, price and student status. Within two to four days of confirmation, students will receive the contract with an explanation details by the booking consultant and pay rent and deposit by credit/debit card or bank transfer.
The company currently has a team of 180 people in offices across 5 continents including London, New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
FinSMEs
11/02/2016