StartUp Circle: How is MultiLiving Technologies one of its kind tech-based rental marketplace?

In places like Mumbai, where finding an affordable, near-to-office, efficiently managed estates are hard enough, MultiLiving, a unique real estate platform makes this on easy.

The venture is backed by Lodha ventures by USD 6 million. A new-age gamechanger, MultiLiving enables tenants to rent curated homes with a personal concierge. It has services that ensuring hassle-free management of assets and steady returns for the homeowners. It has created this ecosystem through technology. The company endeavours to streamline the home renting and management situation for urban professionals.

Thus, CIOL took an opportunity to talk to Mr Pankaj Singh, Founder & CEO, Multiliving Technologies to know more about the startup.

1. What is MultiLiving about?

We are a residential-rental company offering curated apartments for the urban workforce, replete with tech-assisted home management and hospitality services for a hassle-free living experience. We use technology at large to digitize and automate the operations and processes, thereby easing the rental journey for both the tenant and homeowners in their respective value chains.

2. How did you come up with the idea?

Bigger cities attract a huge part of the urban workforce every year due to a wide range of job opportunities available. These working professionals or families are always on the lookout for rental solutions at price points that best suit their pockets. Moreover, the traditional rental ecosystem does nothing much to address the concerns of homeowners over the security of their assets. As a result, more homeowners backed out from renting their properties which further aggravated the gap. So, the demand for such rental solutions is way higher than the supply.

The idea behind MultiLiving was not only to bridge this difference but also to address the concerns various stakeholders may have at different points. Technology became the front runner in our endeavour to full-proof the rental journey for both the tenant and the homeowners. Besides, we wanted to make modern-day renting a hassle-free experience and introduced tech-assisted home management services to add value to the product.

3. What is your business/market growth?

We have been experiencing tremendous growth even though the rental market stalled but slowly and steadily recovering. We have been able to sign up more than 1200 homeowners and close to 150 tenants moving into a MultiLiving home.

4. How did you inculcate tech into real estate?

We are probably one of the only companies in the sector who has been very proactive in deploying tech at each step of their operations. Right from searching the property, walkthroughs, to moving in, living in the apartment, and managing errands, almost every aspect is being taken care of by new-age technologies.

For example, we use AI to zero-in the perfect location of the property for you, based on your data. We recently deployed virtual walkthrough leveraging AR to let customers remotely experience the property in the purview of social distancing. Our app ensures a paperless and hassle-free experience for streamlining rental formalities and allows digital payments. The deep learning algorithm looks after securing the entry points to your apartment. The smart home simplifies various tasks for you. And the tenant can also access on-demand services, digital concierges, and other hospitality services through a single mobile application. Our app also prompts us when the maintenance of the property is due.

5. Managing rental is a tough job. How do you manage the estates?

We have simplified the concept of property and lifestyle management using technology. We have used technology to simplify rental management by digitizing hospitality-led operations. The gains are beyond efficient and help us in defining personalized and managed solutions for our customers.

6. How do you compete with the existing businesses?

There aren’t many players in the space of property management and multifamily rentals which offer services much beyond just providing information. Our business is redefining the way property management is looked at in our country. At the same time, we are also creating solutions for customers looking for rental housing solutions simplifying search, transactions, move-in and living leveraging our technology-enabled solutions. Our product is our differentiator.

7. What are your Post-COVID plans?

Expansion to other urban cities, launching new technology-enabled products to strengthen the search and transaction process.

Funding

- Series A funding of $6 mn by Lodha Ventures.