Amber Raises USD 21.5M Funding Led by Gaja Capital for International Expansion

Leading student accommodation platformAmber today said that it has raised $21.5 M led by Gaja Capital in its latest funding round. The global accommodation player added that it would use the fresh capital for expansion into newer international markets and enhance its offerings for property managers and students.

Mr. Saurabh Goel, CEO & Co-founder and Mr. Madhur Gujar, CBO & Co-founder

Amber was founded in 2017 by Saurabh Goel and Madhur Gujar. With over 1M+ beds listed on its platform, Amber has established itself as a leading player globally in the student accommodation sector across seven countries: UK, US, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Germany, and Spain. The company’s commitment to simplify the housing process for students globally by providing verified listings, seamless and integrated booking experience with virtual property tours and expert assistance has led to its rapid and profitable growth.

Saurabh Goel, CEO of Amber says, “At Amber, we have been deeply obsessed with solving the house-hunting process, starting with students. Having faced this first-hand back in the day, we noticed a significant gap in the customer experience for a need as fundamentals housing. In other sectors we have seen technology-led disruption, but surprisingly house-hunting still remains archaic. Last few years we have heads-down executed, scaling well beyond PMF, and that too profitably. This round further strengthens our mission to provide an even better experience, scale to newer geographies and unlock growth levers for the next 10x.”

Amber is a long-term accommodation platform that helps students in 50+ countries to book accommodation across the developed world. More than 1M+ students visit Ambers platform monthly on its website and mobile apps. In addition to its student-centric offerings, the company has developed AI-based dynamic pricing engine and dashboard tools to help property managers, streamline operations and maximise revenue.

Gopal Jain, Managing Partner, Gaja Capital says, “Amber exemplifies a unique combination of tech-driven scale, high growth, profitability, and capital efficiency that is exceedingly rare in todays market. Global increase in student enrolments underpinned by a long-term study abroad trend is fueling the organized student housing market. We are deeply impressed by Amber teams ability to solve a critical pain point for both students and property managers. Saurabh and Madhur have built a truly global business out of India, and we are glad to partner with them as they work towards expansion into newer markets and deepening their offerings for students and property managers.”

Millions of students go for higher education every year across the developed world and spend around half of their non-tuition student expenses on housing. Ambers mission statement is to simplify housing for students by eliminating broker negotiations, streamlining tedious paperwork and payment processes. The company provides an integrated and seamless discovery to transaction journey for students with user ratings/reviews, price transparency, virtual property tours and guided end-to-end booking journey through an integrated platform. Additionally, amber+streamlines the pre and post move-in journey, helping with student loans, availing student discounts on flight bookings and guarantor services.

Lighthouse Canton and Stride also participated in the funding. The Rainmaker Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor on this transaction.

About Amber

Amber is a leading accommodation platform that provides a marketplace for students to book long-term housing. The company is headquartered in Pune, India and has a presence in UK, US, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Spain and China.

For more information, please visit amberstudent.com.

About Gaja Capital

Gaja Capital is India’s leading growth stage, private equity firm. Gaja Capital invests in technology and technology enabled companies in high growth sectors such as Education, Software, Financial Services and Consumer. Its recent investments include Signzy, a leading digital banking infrastructure enabler, LeadSquared, Indias leading high velocity sales execution software and Xpressbees, Indias leading ecommerce fulfilment company.

To know more, please visit www.gajacapital.com.