DigsConnect, a South African digital student accommodation platform, has received an undisclosed sum of funding from Intaba Capital as part of its ongoing Series A round.
The DigsConnect platform, launched in 2018 by Alexandria Procter and Greg Ramsay-Keal, allows landlords, estate agents, and property managers to post their property listings, with students then searching and filtering through these listings to find accommodation that meets their needs, as well as other students to live with.
Last year, the startup raised a pre-Series A round of funding to fuel its international expansion, with a focus on assisting African students in the UK and US in finding more affordable, convenient, and safe housing. It also formed a partnership with Student.com, the world’s largest student accommodation website, allowing it to expand its presence to approximately 30 new countries and 400 new cities.
DigsConnect is currently raising its Series A round, and has received funding from Intaba Capital, a Cape Town-based women-led investment and advisory firm. The firm, which was founded in 2019, provides consulting and advisory services such as transaction advisory, financial and commercial due diligence, financial analysis, valuations, value creation, and assistance with capital raisings, mergers, acquisitions, and disposals.
According to Procter, the investment came about after its work caught the attention of a US-based charitable organization, which approached it with the desire to invest in its mission.
“Being a charity, they required a highly extensive due diligence. For this purpose, Intaba Capital was appointed. Over the course of many months, the Intaba team combed through every transaction we had ever made on our platform, right back to when it was just Greg Ramsay-Keal and I working from his apartment couch,” she said.
“A couple months later, we reconnected with the Intaba Team to assist our company with some financial modelling for our international growth. Over the course of a few months working together, we formed an incredible working relationship.”
Following that, Intaba made the decision to invest.
“Taking the first bite out of our Series A round”.
“As a cherry on top – Intaba was founded and is run by two extraordinary women. I’ve been pitching to investors on and off for nearly six years, so I can attest to how rare this is” Procter said.
