This Bengaluru-based startup is redefining PG accommodation

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Dr Nikhil Sikri after finishing his MBBS from AIIMS Delhi and having practiced as a doctor for sometime in Singapore wanted to do things differently. He is one among the few doctors who went on to pursue a management course at ISB Hyderabad and he has also worked in the corporate sector for sometime. At the same time, Sikri closely observed the paying guest business in India and found that it was full of places that provided unhygienic living conditions and sometimes stale food to its occupants. He found that in large metros the people managing these paying guest accommodations did not care for their improvement as they found ample demand. This was due to a huge influx of young people and students migrating to the metro cities in India from smaller towns in search of better education and career opportunities. Sikri thus thought of changing all by redefining the paying guest accommodation business in India.

He along with his wife Sneha Choudhry and brother Akhil Sikri (a computer science engineering graduate from IIT Delhi) founded the start up Zolo in Bengaluru in 2015. The aim was to redefine the living experience in India with fully managed and affordable stay options with a homely environment. “After having seen the paying guest scene in India I recognised the gap in the managed affordable living space and the pain points of people migrating to bigger cities for better opportunities. The rooms are unclean, the food they offer is not nutritious. Additionally, there is no proper safe and secured environment for its occupants,” Sikri told THE WEEK.

Zolo aims at managing the entire end to end experience for its occupants. “We first rent the entire building before offering paying guest services. The food we offer is all cooked using graded vegetables and we also offer non vegetarian food once a week. We also have a round the clock person who manages the building. We also provide washing machine facility to the occupants and also take care of any work related to electricity and plumbing. In Chennai, Gurugram and Kota we are providing AC rooms also. Broadly, we are providing food, house keeping, DTH and WiFi to all our occupants and it is all included in the monthly rent,” remarked Sikri.

The occupants have to pay one month deposit and there are ready to move in rented rooms or beds that can be booked through the app. There are options of single rooms, or rooms on a sharing basis and the price depends on the type of room one takes. Currently, Zolo has around 10,000 beds across Bengaluru, Gurugram, Pune, Chennai and Kota. “Our Kota facility is aimed at students who come for coaching at different institutes to prepare for IIT entrance tests. At some of our facilities in Bengaluru we have a waiting list running. We are seeing good business and our gross revenue has grown from Rs 6.2 crore in FY 2016-17 to Rs 26.4 crore in FY 2017-18.” The company plans to expand to around 50,000 beds in the near future and plans to open facilities in Mumbai and Hyderabad very soon. The company has also got funding from Nexus Venture Partners.

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