Funding from Italy and the Netherlands
The funding comes from Real Web, the owner of Italy’s largest online housing platform Immobiliare.it, and from Dutch venture capitalist henQ which raised €1 million for Housing Anywhere. “With this new funding we can continue our platform’s rapid growth,” says CEO Niels van Deuren, who completed RSM’s BSc International Business Administration and MSc in International Management/CEMS.
“It’s very valuable to us that a major international company like Real Web has joined us. They possess a wealth of experience in the online housing market and we can learn a lot from them. The fact that henQ is also providing new funding means there is a lot of confidence in our platform.”
Student housing platform
Housing Anywhere was founded in 2009 by Niels van Deuren when he was a student at RSM looking for a temporary student room for his international exchange in Singapore. “Many landlords and subletters expect rent in advance to make sure you actually show up,” remembers Van Deuren, “but for students it’s a pretty big step to transfer money without having seen the place first.”
Via Housing Anywhere, students can let and sublet rooms when they go on an international exchange or internship, and homeowners and commercial housing companies can also offer student apartments on the platform. Its accommodations catalogue features more than 100,000 properties in 50 countries, and around 1000 rooms and apartments are added each week. All transactions take place securely through HousingAnywhere.com and the first month’s rent is only transferred after the student has viewed and approved their new home.
International growth
The new funding enables the platform to expand to more countries and cities in major foreign exchange markets such as the USA and Western Europe, where the EU’s popular Erasmus student exchange program alone mobilizes about 270,000 foreign exchange students each year. Van Deuren says Housing Anywhere is set to reach 60 countries next year, expanding to 100 in 2018.
Entrepreneurship at RSM
Many RSM alumni are successful in starting their own companies. In addition to Housing Anywhere, successful startups by entrepreneurs who studied at RSM include Symbid, Enviu, Dwillo and Kukua. Entrepreneurship and innovation is taught in RSM’s programmes, and RSM works closely with the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship.
