CoHo Success Story
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Migration has considerably increased both within the country and abroad. The reasons for the same are many but the most prominent being, in search of employment options and education. Moving to a new place breaks the monotony and unravels a whole new world. However, finding the right place to live in a new city, is a difficult task indeed. Nevertheless, CoHo has got that covered.
CoHo is a Gurugram based startup that provides the best Co-living option specially designed to accommodate the Millenials' needs and aspirations.
CoHo - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-CoHo
- Headquarter-Gurugram, India
- Sector-Co-Living
- Founders-Uday Lakkar
- Founded-2015
- Funding-$3 Million
- Parent Organization-ZR Management Pvt. Ltd.
- Website-www.coho.in
About CoHo and How it Works
CoHo is a tech-enabled platform pioneering the concept of co-living spaces in India with its managed apartments and villas for a hassle-free living experience for millennials. The company provides ready-to-move-in shared accommodations on a rental basis for young professionals and students in India. CoHo is currently operational in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Bangalore.
CoHo co-living spaces come with all services for hassle-free living like housekeeping, WiFi, DTH Cable, repairs & maintenance, etc. Besides these, there are provisions for self-help amenities like Smart Locks, fully-automatic washing machines for laundry, ironing facilities, microwave and induction oven, fridge, tea/coffee machine, etc. The online concierge in the resident app makes sure everyone has a smooth stay at CoHo.
CoHo has these 3Cs as its DNA -
Comfort - ready to use premium accommodations for a comfortable stay.
- Convenience - forget about repair, maintenance, housekeeping, internet or power woes. CoHo will take care of it.
- Community - You no longer need to feel lonely in a new city. Enjoy recreational lounges, fun filled events and sessions with like minded residents and be a part of the CoHo community.
- The core belief of the team is to transform the way millennials are living today in tier 1 & 2 cities across India. The USPs that CoHo boasts of are its young and vibrant community and the technology it uses to make the residents stay in CoHo delightful.
CoHo community engagements are something which every resident looks forward to during their stay at CoHo. CoHo organizes various events, sessions and meet-ups for the residents, so that there's no dull moment after work, holidays or on weekends. Community events act as another platform for young professionals & students living in the CoHo ecosystem to interact and engage with each other.
CoHo believes in heavily leveraging technology to ensure a smooth stay for its residents. CoHo Resident App acts as a one stop solution for all day-to-day engagement like customer on-boarding, fee payment, complaint redressal, privileged offers, community engagement, rating experience etc. Besides, technology forms the strong backbone of all back-end processes for efficient rapid scale-up. Both technology and community engagement in each CoHo space has been key to growing CoHo's community both emotionally and culturally.
CoHo Residents can also avail a host of offers from their brand partners like Zomato, Beer Cafe, Max Healthcare, Fitso, Shuttl, VLCC etc.
“There’s TV and DTH connection, high speed Wi-Fi, a pool table, a foosball table, mini golf, PS3 and regular housekeeping and maintenance, so I’d say the decor and amenities clearly set CoHo apart from hostels or PGs. The look and feel of the space is young, vibrant and energetic. Patterns in the wall paint, theme-based posters, wall arts and quirky cushion covers everywhere.”
One has to opt for a meal plan that includes daily dinner and lunch only on weekends, as most of CoHo’s residents are young professionals who are rarely in for lunch. They have over 30 meals and the food is prepared by a professional chef provided by a third-party vendor. The CoHo team sets the basic menu, but it’s altered according to the preference of the residents. Regularly, the CoHo team reaches out to residents through the app seeking for their inputs and preferences. Based on the feedback, the menu is altered frequently to ensure the residents’ palate stays happy.
Co- Living Industry Details
The 150 million urban residents that it is poised to add over the next 15 years will make India the “trailblazer” of co-living in Asia-Pacific.
“Younger generations, fast evolving consumer trends, and the potential scalability of the (Indian) market is a real drawcard for startups and developers looking to enter the (co-living) market,” a JLL report added.
There are 45+ Million millennials (Age group of 18 to 32) who are living in cities with high inward migration. The market size is currently pegged at approx. $93 Billion. The industry has recently picked up pace and will thrive in the coming 5 years with more players and capital coming to this industry.
Founders of CoHo and team
Uday Lakkar and Amber Sajid are the Founders of CoHo. Uday Lakkar and Amber Sajid
Uday Lakkar is the founder & CEO of CoHo. He is an An IIM-Ahmedabad alumni, who worked as an investment professional, consultant and financial analyst across organizations like McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Ireo, Capital18 and EXL Service. His first venture, Zocalo.in, that went on to become one of the most successful broker-free listing platforms for PGs, hostels, shared apartments has equipped him the right knowledge that allowed him to drive CoHo towards leading position in the co-living space.
Amber Sajid is the Co-founder of CoHo. He has 20+ experience in Real Estate with Ireo, DLF and Barista before taking up Business Development at CoHo.
Currently CoHo has a team of 100+ people across functions of Technology, Sales, Marketing, Design, Operations & Facility Management.
How was CoHo Started
Uday launched Zocalo.in in 2014, which was a marketplace model for finding rental accommodations broker-free. While running Zocalo, Uday saw the actual and substandard quality of the spaces which are available for millenials. Uday realized that there is huge room for improvement in this segment which led to the pivot towards CoHo.
CoHo was launched in 2015-end. Uday shares several instances like that of his friends from IIM-A struggling to find an accommodation in India's largest metro city for more than a couple of months simply because of discrimination based on community background; another instance that he recollects was when he was shunned from entering so many residential societies in Gurgaon simply because he wanted to stay with his other bachelor friends from McKinsey.
Even now we see notice boards saying "Bachelors and Dogs are not allowed here". We feel that the overall quality of youth accommodations (for students and working professionals) in India is in an abysmal state with inconsistent services, poor infrastructure and no technology whatsoever.
There is a crying need for a trusted brand with promise of consistent services at affordable price points in long stay accommodations segment and the team at CoHo is trying to create exactly that, and the response from the market they have received till now has been a testimony to the same.
CoHo - Business Model and Revenue Model
The CoHo business model runs on an asset light model. The company takes assets for long lease, then add its signature furniture, design, décor and rent it out to individual millennials for long stay. Residents pay a monthly fee which includes all the furniture, appliances, recreational amenities, housekeeping services, WiFi, repairs & maintenance etc. Typical double sharing room in CoHo ranges from INR 10,000 to 16,000 across different locations.
CoHo - User Acquisition
Coho relied upon their previous company Zocalo as a starting point to acquire the first few customers and it helped them immensely to have a smooth take off. In their process of user acquisition, referrals played a huge role on Day 1 and even today.
CoHo - Startup Challenges
Major challenges faced are in terms of spreading awareness of the concept and trust building given that this industry suffers from deficit of trust over time and unprofessional approach from the brokers and service-providers alike. The problem is a bit more pronounced in markets like Delhi NCR in particular, which are huge in size yet quite an unprofessional market overall, leading to dissonance among young customers. CoHo is trying to exactly address this trust deficit issue by creating a trusted brand that promises and delivers high quality services & experience to its residents consistently given that this is typically a high-touch experience product and not an impulsive purchase for the user.
CoHo - Competitors
NestAway, StayAbode, Zolo and Colive are some major competitors of CoHo. Again, a huge segment of the market is still dominated by the traditional hostels or PGs, or youngsters taking apartments together in the absence of a systematic co-living space brand in India.
CoHo - Growth
At present, CoHo has expanded from Delhi NCR to Bengaluru. Along with this, CoHo caters to institutes like IIT Delhi, Pearl Academy, Indian School of Hospitality, Max Hospital directly as B2B partners.
Coho has been covered extensively by leading news agencies like CNBC, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The times of India, The Telegraph, Fortune, Business Standard, India Today, The Hindu and others.
It has also established B2B partnership with leading brands like Pizza Hut, Beer Café, Foodpanda, LensKart, Shuttl, InnerChef, Sutra pub, VanityCube etc.
Over the recent year and a half, CoHo has witnessed a 5x growth to 3,000+ beds with INR 24 Cr annualized revenue run-rate across Delhi NCR & Bangalore. They are now looking to rapidly scale to a pan-India level with 25,000+ beds in the next 12-15 months by building on the waitlist for consumers and deep data driven understanding of the millennial lifestyle.
The CoHo company also intends to expand to Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other Tier I cities of India soon.
Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
Who is the Founders of CoHo?
The CoHo Founders are Uday Lakkar and Amber Sajid.
How expensive is CoHo?
Typical double sharing room in CoHo ranges from INR 10,000 to 16,000 across different locations.
Where is CoHo operational?
At present, CoHo is operational in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru but intends to expand to Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other Tier I cities of India soon.
