Luxury villa, apartment rental platform Elivaas raised Rs 87 crore or $10.4 million in a Series B funding round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, along with existing investors Peak XV Partners’ Surge and 3one4 Capital.
With the latest funding round, the company has so far raised $3 million in the Seed round and Angel round combined, and last year raised $5 million.
Founders Ritwik Khare and Karan Miglani have plans to add more properties both in India and in some of the international markets, along with improving the platform's technology.
Khare pointed out the potential the villa and apartment rental market holds in India. "In the post-COVID era, this category just really took a hockey stick kind of growth in demand and supply, both. Today, it's a 10 times growth category on demand and supply, both compared to hotels. If you have three to four percent new hotels coming up in a year, you have 25 to 30 percent new second homes coming up as apartments and villas in leisure and business cities," he told Moneycontrol.
We see a fast-growing opportunity to leverage the second homes supply to provide premium travel experiences in India via alternate accommodation, said Nikhil Marwaha, Partner, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.
However, it's a very fragmented and unorganized space, Khare added. "Our estimate is that India has about half a million (villas and apartments) homes right now, out of which 70-80 thousand are in the luxury category. What is interesting is that this is growing at a massive 25 to 30 percent per annum."
Currently, the luxury villa and apartment rental market is pegged to be at about $4 billion in India, which is estimated to reach $20 billion by 2035, Khare added.
The company currently has 505 properties, up from 100 last year, and expects to reach 1,000 properties by FY26. It has presence across 8 states in North, West, South, and Goa, covering about 32 destinations. It is also looking at international markets like the UAE and Sri Lanka.
"We will be looking at Thailand and the Indonesian market, followed by the rest of Southeast Asia. Our focus will always be on the sub-5-hour flying distance destinations," he said.
In addition to scaling up, the company will use funds to hire more talent as well as invest in marketing.
In FY24, the company recorded Rs 8 crore in booking value, and in FY25, it grew 5 times.
Khare pointed out that the segments that prefer villas a lot more compared to hotels are those who travel in a group of five or more people. "I am seeing young families where there are one or two kids with the parents who are above a teenage age, they are finding a lot more value and more importantly, a lot more meaning in staying in a villa or an apartment. Also, corporate customers are gradually moving away from corporate boardroom off-sites to villas. Corporate consumers account for about 25-30 percent of bookings, and leisure travellers account for about 70 percent."
He further said, "We have launched apartments and we see that a lot of people who want to travel for more than 4-5 days to a destination prefer apartments.
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