Pune Inc: How a city-based start-up became one-stop destination for student accommodation abroad

Amber is the brainchild of Saurabh Goel, an IIT Kharagpur graduate; while planning to study in US, Goel realised the most painstaking part was to find a suitable student accommodation.

Amber co-founders Saurabh Goel and Madhur Gujar. (Express photo)

4 min readPuneSep 10, 2024 08:10 PM IST First published on: Sep 10, 2024 at 11:16 AM IST

After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, like many young Indian students, Saurabh Goel harboured the dream to study abroad. When Goel started looking at universities in the US and got in touch with friends who were also planning the move, he realised the most painstaking part of the process was to find a suitable student accommodation. This strenuous house-hunting process kindled the idea behind Amber – a Pune-based startup, Goel says

Recalling the success story of Amber, Goel says it all started as a pocket money gig in 2016 when he put his free time to use and started helping friends find accommodation who were planning to study abroad. In the initial four years, the going was quite tough for Goel who along with his batchmate, Madhur Gujar, and a few friends started the venture. In 2019, the team finally saw the demand for their service scale up. Since then, it has been a journey of making $100,000 on an annual basis to $15 million.

Amber, now allows students from different countries to complete rental bookings across major destinations like the UK, Australia, Ireland, the US, Canada, Germany and Spain. The gross booking value till 2023 has been $1.2 billion catering to a customer base of 100,000 students. In February 2024, the start-up was in news after it raised 21 million dollars in the first round of institutional funding, led by Mumbai-based private equity firm Gaja Capital.

Goel says setting up Amber had its share of challenges, the biggest one being on-board suppliers. He mentions that was the main focus for the first three years. “Considering that the supply was not in India, and we were catering to UK, Ireland, Australia, US, etc, while being based out of India, it was difficult to find people and get them on-board,” he says.

The second challenge was generating demand and getting users on the platform. “We did a lot of experiments. We tried creating Facebook communities, WhatsApp groups, paid marketing, SEO, tying-up with study abroad consultants and student loan providers, etc,” says Goel. The last one was building the product, a platform with seamless experience while booking accommodations.

With a lot of online house hunting platforms, the biggest fear of customers is that property in reality could turn out to be very different from pictures and information online.

Regarding the checks and balances in place to avoid fake listings, Amber’s topmost priority was to have genuine content on the platform. “So we have multiple check-ins in place. For example, when we are on-boarding properties, we only have property operators and managers who have good reputation. There is enough information available like Google ratings where you can see their ratings,” Goel mentions.

In some cases the team visits properties and checks if they meet the quality standards. “Also during the process to on-board them, we require that the property managers walk us through the property online. Before making it live, all relevant information with photos and videos are added on the platform. After a property is made live, we check that students are not facing any issues when it comes to quality of living, so if certain properties are not meeting criteria, we de-list the properties,” Goel adds.

Another potential threat to the business could be the changing policies of the countries about in-take of international students or halting visa-services due to geo-political tensions.

While Goel agrees that these trends keep changing, he says, it doesn’t make a significant dent on their business. “Some countries make immigration policies lenient while some make them more strict. But overall it balances out. For example, if the UK caps the students, the US makes the process more lenient, then students get attracted there. The study abroad market has been growing and will continue to grow. We cater to all top markets, so it doesn’t affect us that badly, it may fluctuate to those who cater to only a specific country,” he explains.

Amber also caters to students from the UK, South-east Asia, Africa and Europe. “That way any certain fluctuation in a particular market doesn’t affect us,” Goel says.