Millennials Rejoice! CoHo and Niki.ai are here to change the way the younger generation lives while they’re living away from home
Words: Rochelle D ‘souza Images: Various sources
Moving to a new city and finding a space that could be their home away from home is one of the biggest challenges faced. From abysmal infrastructure, shared bathrooms, insipid food and amenities that don’t function to wardens/landlords constantly breathing down your throat about curfews, decorum and having company over. Add this to ridiculous brokerage fees and the hassles that surmount the maintenance of rental homes and it seems like putting a roof over one’s head in a new city is close to impossible. We crib, we curse, and in the end we settle for something ‘decent’. But what if we told you that better living is right within your reach. Enter CoHo.
Tailor made for young professionals, CoHo is a tech-enabled platform pioneering the concept of Co-Living Spaces with its managed apartments and villas for a hassle-free living experience to the millennial. CoHo provides managed rental accommodations for young professionals and students with state of art amenities and everything one would need. The concept is simple yet novel.
CoHo recently collaborated with leading artificial intelligence startup, Niki.ai to integrate the NikiChatbot SDK (Software Development Kit) on their resident app, enabling conversational commerce on CoHo’s platform. Through this tie-up CoHo aims to extend a plethora of services for their users by working similarly to Apple Inc.’s ‘Siri’ or the Google Assistant, enabling CoHo residents to avail services such as mobile recharges, cabs, buses and hotel bookings, events and movie ticketing, all on the CoHo platform by simply chatting with Niki.
FWD Business picks the brains of CoHo founders UdayLakkar and Amber Sajid on the portal and everything it entails.
How did the idea of creating a platform like CoHo come to you?
CoHo was born out of a need and a pain-point, which is so fundamental to the youth in India and is yet unaddressed blatantly. I (Uday) can recollect instances like that of my friend from IIMA struggling to find accommodation in India’s largest metro city simply because of his community background; I myself was shunned from entering residential societies in Gurgaon simply because I wanted to stay with my bachelor friends from McKinsey. I remember a notice board saying “Bachelors and Dogs are not allowed here”. I feel that the overall quality of youth accommodations (for students and working professionals) in India is in an abysmal state with inconsistent services, poor infrastructure and no technology whatsoever. There is a desperate need for a trusted brand with promise of consistent services at affordable price points and we are trying to create exactly that.
What was the initial response after the commencement of services and how has the business progressed?
The concept is relatively new in India so there is definitely a need for customer education on the concept. However, we are seeing tremendous traction in vibrant youth-centric cities like Gurgaon where young professionals are loving it once they see and experience the concept first hand. This is typically a high-touch experience product and not am impulsive purchase for the user.
What is your vision for Coho?
CoHo is expanding deeper in Delhi NCR currently and intends to expand to top 8 cities of India over next 12-18 months. The business model is highly scalable with huge depth in demand as well oversupply of real estate in almost top Indian cities.
How did collaboration of Niki.ai with CoHo app happen?
CoHo takes care of almost all its services inside the ecosystem, Niki takes that experience to the next level by extending services beyond our reach using its chatbot to book buses, cabs, hotels, tickets to events and movies, local searches and much more.
How will this tie-up benefit your business prospects?
CoHo residents stay for at least a year. Both CoHo and Niki learns about the day to day lifestyle of a millennial. It’ll help us provide better more refined services depending on their interests and activities both inside and outside CoHo.
How does the Software Development Kit (SDK) empower businesses to leverage artificial intelligence to their customers?
The SDK allows brands to enable conversational commerce on their mobile and web portals. Post SDK integration, brands can offer multiple services to their customers, on a simple chat interface powered by artificial intelligence. A mere 1mb SDK enables brands to enhance their app experience, improve engagement, increase customer retention, acquire new customers and monetize their customer base.