Africa’s top student housing site bags The Delta investment

An award-winning student accommodation marketplace, DigsConnect.com, has just scored investment from Africa’s leading venture builder, The Delta, as part of a new funding round. This follows just days after DigsConnect.com was voted one of the top ten start-ups in South Africa by Innovation City, supporting over 80 000 users and listing over 1.3 million beds on their platform.

Founded in 2018, the PropTech start-up has become the largest student housing platform in Africa, boasting over 1.3 million beds listed worldwide. It is currently expanding its operations into the United Kingdom, United States, Singapore, and Europe to support local students pursuing overseas opportunities.

“Hundreds of thousands of African students are electing to study abroad, and housing remains one of the primary obstacles for them,” says co-founder and chief executive Alexandria Procter.

“We will be focusing on providing safe avenues to affordable student accommodation for students from Singapore to Berlin to New York City. The Delta’s global operations and networks provide a springboard into many of these locations.”

As things stand, The Delta is the largest venture builder in Africa and one of the largest in Europe, with offices in South Africa, Switzerland, the UK, and Germany. Portfolio ventures within its Capital arm benefit from its more than 200 venture-building specialists and international network of founders, entrepreneurs, and investors.

“We’re incredibly excited to leverage The Delta’s extensive product and startup expertise to continue to build a world-class product,” states Procter.

Impressive portfolio

The investment in DigsConnect.com is said to reflect The Delta’s plans to support later-stage African start-ups who are looking to become scaleups and break into other parts of Africa, or expand globally. The South Africa-founded venture builder plans to launch a multi-hundred million Euro fund by the end of 2022 to support this initiative.

“DigsConnect is a great company. We are excited to have them in our portfolio. I feel that Alex and Greg’s passion for the venture, mixed with the global possibility will make for a great ride!” says Louis Buys, chief executive and founder of The Delta.

Furthermore, DigsConnect.com joins the likes of employee-wellness platform Strove and fintech Revio as part of rising African start-ups within The Delta’s portfolio.

Last week, The Delta also announced its investment, alongside Target Global, in Luca, which has raised an historic €30 million seed round. It is both one of Germany’s largest-ever seed rounds, and one of the biggest to date in Europe.

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