Flat.to is a real estate listing website announcing its official launch in Mumbai. The site connects college students with brokers and owners to find flats. The company is also announcing its fund raising and partnerships with colleges and AIESEC.
After helping hundreds of students find accommodation and roommates, Flat.to (www.flat.to) is coming out of its beta phase today to officially launch across Mumbai. The company is taking a unique approach to the online real estate listings market by only solving the problem for college students. Students can find accommodation and roommates by searching for their college, and the site connects them with agents and owners nearby who specialize in renting out to college students.
On the agent side, the company has seen great response by signing up a handful of paying brokers even before launch. “After using several websites, Flat.to is the only one that has actually generated leads into conversions”, says Mr. Vinod Madhrani, proprieter of Sainath Estate, an active real estate agent specializing in college students in the Juhu Vile Parle area in Mumbai. He goes on, “There are thousands of college students that come to Mumbai every year, and they have no option but to ask their friends about places to stay. Flat.to is now a great solution.
Gaurav Munjal, Founder & CEO, faced the problem when he moved from Jaipur to NMIMS University in Mumbai to study Computer Engineering at MPSTME. He saw a clear gap in the market and launched the alpha version of the site about a year back. He went on to work at Directi as a Software Engineer out of college, and then quit his job last month to get on Flat.to full time. “We have seen overwhelming response from both students and agents”, says Munjal, who was the Chairperson of Association for Computing Machinery at MPSTME college during his time there. “Plan for the next few months is to capture the Mumbai market, and then go to other college towns such as Pune and Bangalore.
The company has been funded by Aakrit Vaish, Director of Flurry India and active angel investor, who will be Chairman of the Board. Gaurav and Aakrit met a year back, and since have worked together to get the product off the ground. “The market is begging for a product like this, and that has further been validated by the unprecedented demand we have seen in our beta phase”, says Aakrit, who moved from San Francisco to Mumbai in 2011 to start Flurry India. “We are very excited by the potential this holds, and look forward to the journey ahead.
As part of the launch, the company is also announcing partnerships with AIESEC Mumbai, NMIMS University and Thadomal Shahani College of Engineering (TSEC). AIESEC is an international non-profit organization that provides students with leadership skills and internship opportunities. “Gaurav and the team have been immensely helpful in getting our students the right accommodation at the right prices, and we look forward to growing this relationship further”, says Gaurav Sathe, President, AIESEC Mumbai.
Gaurav and his team of 6 are based in Mumbai and are actively looking to hire in all positions including Sales, Engineering and Marketing.
Visit www.flat.to also do visit the resources section at resources.flat.to
Other Links: Facebook http://facebook.com/FlatDotTo Twitter http://twitter.com/FlatDotTo+
