House of Student Secures $2 Million in Seed Funding to Scale the World’s First Student Housing Marketplace
New Delhi – House of Student, a global student living technology company that operates the world’s largest student housing marketplace with over 2.5 million verified student rooms across more than 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UAE, Singapore and 18 European countries, has secured $2 million in seed capital through a combination of equity and debt investment. The round is led by Saltwater Sutra, a boutique investment banking group operating between New York and Mumbai, together with Nirmitsu Inspirational Ventures, and includes Gautam Verlekar, co-founder at Saltwater Venture Sparks; Glen Fernandes, Managing Director at Bank of New York Mellon; Richard McCallum, former Managing Director & CEO of the UK India Business Council; Ali Moosa, Executive Vice Chairman of Singapore Gulf Bank; and other strategic investors. The round also brings together existing investors from Unilodgers who have continued their support alongside these new strategic backers.
The funding will accelerate product innovation, supply expansion, AI capabilities, and global expansion as the company prepares for its next stage of growth.
House of Student was founded by Vaibhav Verma, who previously built Unilodgers, the world’s first student housing marketplace, helping create an entirely new industry category that has since grown into a multi-billion-dollar global market. Built without external funding, Verma bootstrapped Unilodgers until its first institutional investment round, which valued the company at $109 million. For Verma, House of Student is not a second startup; it is the evolution of a mission that has remained unchanged for more than fifteen years. Much of the core team that built Unilodgers has chosen to build this next chapter together, including long-time leaders Ayushi Gupta and Deepak Bahuguna, who have built alongside Verma for more than a decade.Today, that fifteen-year mission continues through House of Student.
Before creating Unilodgers, Verma’s own housing struggles throughout his undergraduate years in London and postgraduate studies in Nottingham, United Kingdom, exposed a gap in the market where students largely relied on classifieds, notice boards, and informal networks to find accommodation. Determined to change that experience, he founded Unilodgers with a simple belief: if students leave home to pursue their dreams, they should begin that journey with trust, transparency, and genuine support. Millions of students have since relied on the platform in their search for housing around the world.
“We never started with the ambition of building an accommodation company,” said Vaibhav Verma, Founder of House of Student. “We started because we believed students deserved better. Student housing was simply the first problem we could solve. Over the years, we’ve realised our responsibility is much bigger. House of Student isn’t a new beginning – it’s the culmination of everything we’ve learned. We started by helping students find a home. Today, our ambition is to become the world’s most trusted company around student life. If we can help students begin one of the most important chapters of their lives with greater confidence, trust and honest support, we’ll have achieved what we set out to do.”
Like much of the global education sector, Unilodgers faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than simply rebuilding what existed as the market recovered, Verma and the core leadership team asked a more fundamental question: if accommodation is only the beginning of a student’s journey, what responsibility do we have throughout their student life? The result was House of Student, a company shaped by fifteen years of experience, reflection, and a belief that students deserve better.
