South African online accommodation marketplace DigsConnect has partnered with student housing giant Student.com to expand to locations across the globe.
Founded in 2018, DigsConnect connects students and landlords to match students to suitable accommodation around post-secondary education institutions.
As part of the partnership, the start-up will expand to 30 new countries and 400 new cities in just six months, through the use of Student.com’s “strong global presence”.
“The last 18 months has been tough for the property sector in South Africa,” said DigsConnect CEO and co-founder Alexandria Procter.
“Part of what this partnership signifies is the student accommodation sector bouncing back.”
The partnership aims to meet the “growing demand” of students looking to study abroad, and to offer a “gateway for African students”.
Procter said that DigsConnect’s targets for regional growth are the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, citing that “with international operations, we’ll be able to take advantage of academic seasons” in the northern hemisphere.
“South Africa is such a popular student destination”
“This diversified geographic representation gives us multiple seasons a year, allowing us to bring in revenue year-round and have continual feedback cycles to continually improve our product and services,” Procter explained.
Student.com’s CEO and founder also agreed that the partnership would “create a strong foundation for growth”.
“South Africa is such a popular student destination,” said Luke Nolan.
“More than anything, this partnership is built from the base of sharing the same vision and values – it’s exciting to partner together to help even more students globally.”
The agreement comes after DigsConnect received an investment raise in early 2021, which prompted it to look into the idea of global expansion.
The company is best-known for its R12m investment round in 2019, which was “record-setting”.
“We’re thrilled to be opening up a gateway between Africa and the rest of the world, to enable access to higher education globally for African students with dreams of pursuing higher education in any of the major European, American, or Australian cities,” Procter said.
“Our global network combined with the reach and experience of DigsConnect in South Africa will create a strong foundation for growth,” added Nolan.
