Local online student accommodation marketplace DigsConnect.com has entered into an agreement with international platform Student.com that will see the startup expand its presence to approximately 30 new countries and 400 new cities in the next six months. The agreement with Student.com comes off the back of an additional investment raise in early 2021 which aided the startup's decision to investigate international expansion.
DigsConnect cofounder Alexandria Procter; Luke Nolan, CEO and founder of Student.com; and DigsConnect cofounder Greg Ramsay-Keal
“The last eighteen months has been tough for the property sector in South Africa, which has been amongst the hardest hit due to Covid," says DigsConnect CEO and cofounder Alexandria Procter. "I believe that part of what this partnership signifies is the student accommodation sector bouncing back as we gear up to welcome local and foreign students back to our universities, campuses and country for the 2022 academic year.”
Diversified geographic representation
Procter says that the primary growth regions for DigConnect include the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific. “Growth in the Northern Hemisphere is important due to the academic calendar - with international operations, we’ll be able to take advantage of the academic seasons in both September (Northern Hemisphere) and again in January, our own South African peak period. 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.”
“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,” says Procter. “We couldn’t have hoped for better partners than the Student.com team, it really is a dream come true to be building the future alongside them.”
![The Red and Yellow Creative School of Business / Cape Town’s Emma Blomerus’ With Love]] is South Africa’s only finalist in the One Show’s Young Ones ADC competition (Image supplied)](https://biz-file.com/c/2604/809130-300x156.gif?3)
