Hospitality management firm Hostmaker has closed a £5m Series A funding round led by French venture capital fund Ventech and existing investors DN Capital.
Hostmaker, based in London and founded in 2014, is an Airbnb management company which assists Airbnb hosts with online listings, guest experience, and hotel-style housekeeping.
The firm says it will use the funds to strengthen its position in London, Paris, Rome, and Barcelona – credited with being four of the largest markets for Airbnb. Hostmaker says it supports more than 1,000 homestay hosts across these cities.
This latest investment takes Hostmaker’s total funding to £7.5m.
Nakul Sharma, founder and CEO of Hostmaker, said: “Our investors back our vision of creating a premium hospitality experience within the homestay segment that is seeing explosive growth. Regulatory changes in all cities have now made short-lets a category offering that is here to stay.
“Over the last few years, we have seen a fundamental change in how homeowners view their home as not just their private space but as a space to be shared, which allows them to monetize an asset and makes living in expensive European capitals more affordable.
“We are the only ones in our segment at the moment that is rapidly scaling internationally and capitalising on this opportunity for the homeowners by offering proprietary pricing technology, in-house interior design and a five-star trained operations team, all under one roof.”
Ventech is a Paris-based venture capital firm which currently supports fashion platform Vestiaire Collective and home cleaning service Helpling.
Alain Caffi, founder and managing partner of Ventech, said: “Hostmaker is the perfect enabler to push further the Airbnb revolution in a scalable and profitable way. The team has the professionalism to achieve its long-term vision of being an alternative to hotel groups in the 3 to 4 stars’ segment; this is game changing.”.
