Co-living platform Isthara bags $10 million funding led by Dubai-based Eagle Investments

Urban co-living and foodtech startup Isthara has raised $10 million (about Rs 82 crore) funding led by Dubai-based Eagle Investments Ltd, taking the total funds raised by the startup to $21 million.

The startup plans to deploy the new funds to foray into the business-to-consumer (B2C) retail food court space and expand its presence in the co-living sector, it said in a statement.

Founded in 2017 by Gilbert James and Vijayan Krishna Kumar, Isthara operates over 24,000 beds across the country.

“In the next three years, Isthara is planning to grow 10x to 500 food courts from around 50 and achieve pan-India market leadership across the food court segment. In the co-living sector, Isthara aims to double the bed capacity to 50,000,” said James in an interaction with Moneycontrol.

Isthara was operating only in the business to business (B2B) institutional cafeteria segment and aims to replicate this success in the B2C space by launching smart food courts across retail locations such as malls.

“The foray into the B2C food retail segment will also be able to widen the customer base potential and not be limited by a captive audience as is the case with institutional cafeterias,” the company said.

Isthara claims that its smart food courts have witnessed an average per-ticket consumption growth of over 100 percent in each city, as compared to its pre-modified traditional cafeteria format.

In September 2021, Isthara raised a round of funding from existing investors JM Financial Private Equity, along with Dubai-based Eagle Proprietary Investments and a few family offices.

Recently, the company acquired the software product engineering firm Letsmobility to digitise operations and introduce advanced tech solutions in the co-living and institutional cafeteria sectors.

“With a rise in safety and hygiene concerns since the pandemic, we are seeing a fundamental shift as customers across the spectrum are increasingly opting for tech-enabled and safety-focused co-living and food options. With its (Isthara’s) unique business model, tech-focused solutions, and strong scalability potential, Isthara is poised to disrupt the co-living and retail food court segment,” said Elias Kawar, Managing Director of Eagle Investments.