Nestaway Acquired by Aurum for $11M — a 95% Valuation Cut Since 2020

Nestaway Technologies has been snapped up by Aurum Proptech (formerly Majesco Ltd) for $11M, a 95% 'discount' for a company that was valued at $220M in 2019.

Aurum's board approved the acquisition of up to 100% of Nestaway shares after the portal, backed by marquee investors including Tiger Global and Flipkart, struggled to improve revenues and cut losses since 2020.

Aurum says the acquisition of the struggling portal will add to its consumer-tech segment and is in line with the strategy to create its efforts to build an ‘integrated proptech ecosystem’, in an NSE filing. The transaction is expected to complete by 30th June 2023 assuming contingent conditions are met.

Nestaway has 18,000 properties featured on its portal and has received backing to the tune of $110M since its foundation in 2015. The portal has competed with the likes of ZoloStays and Stanza Living, but it hasn't been plain sailing.

Revenues at Nestaway dropped by 47% in FY22 to 57.87 crore ($7m)—the portal achieved revenues worth $13M in 2020. On a unit level, Nestaway spent three rupees for every rupee it generated last year.

Interestingly, Aurum previously acquired Helloworld, a student co-living platform also conceived by Nestaway, in March 2022 and scaled up its operations to now acquire parent company Nestaway.