House of Student has raised $2 million in seed funding to expand its global student housing marketplace, strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities, and develop new technology to support students throughout their university experience.
The San Francisco-based student living technology company currently offers access to more than 2.5 million verified student rooms across more than 25 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and 18 European nations.
The seed round combines equity and debt financing and is led by Saltwater Sutra, a New York- and Mumbai-based investment banking group, alongside Nirmitsu Inspirational Ventures.
Additional investors include Gautam Verlekar, co-founder of Saltwater Venture Sparks; Glen Fernandes, managing director at Bank of New York Mellon; Richard McCallum, former managing director and CEO of the UK India Business Council; and Ali Moosa, executive vice chairman of Singapore Gulf Bank. Other strategic investors also participated, along with existing investors from Unilodgers.
Addressing a Marketplace Gap
House of Student was founded in 2025 by entrepreneur Vaibhav Verma, who previously founded Unilodgers, an early global marketplace focused specifically on student housing.
Verma bootstrapped Unilodgers and grew the company to a reported valuation of $109 million. The new venture is designed to extend beyond housing into a broader technology ecosystem serving university students.
Several members of the former Unilodgers leadership team have joined Verma at the new company, including Ayushi Gupta and Deepak Bahuguna.
Verma’s interest in the student accommodation market grew from his own experiences studying in London and Nottingham, where finding housing often required relying on classified advertisements and fragmented networks.
Those challenges helped shape the original idea behind Unilodgers: create a more trusted and organized way for students to find places to live.
House of Student Eyes Broader Student Living Market
While student accommodation remains at the center of House of Student’s current marketplace, Verma sees a larger opportunity to build services around the entire student experience.
“We never started with the ambition of building an accommodation company,” Verma said. “Student housing was simply the first problem we wanted to solve. Today, our ambition is to become the world’s most trusted company around student life.”
Verma gained insight from the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which created significant challenges across the international higher education and student accommodation industries.
Verma and his team began to reconsider how a technology platform could support students not only when they search for housing, but throughout their university journey.
House of Student plans to use its new capital to accelerate product development, expand its use of artificial intelligence and strengthen its presence in international markets.
Technology Opportunity in Global Student Housing
International students face additional challenges when searching for housing in unfamiliar markets, including verifying properties, comparing locations and understanding local rental requirements.
A marketplace with millions of verified rooms allows House of Student to address those pain points while developing additional services around the broader needs of university students.
The company’s international footprint also provides a base for continued expansion as universities and student housing providers seek more digital ways to connect with students across borders.
With its $2 million seed round, the company is now entering its next phase of growth with a strategy that combines student housing, artificial intelligence and technology designed around the larger student living experience.
For Verma and his returning leadership team, the objective is ultimately larger than building another accommodation marketplace. House of Student is positioning itself as a global student technology company designed to remain connected with students throughout their university years.
