Munich-based vacation rental company Holidu secures €100M, eyes expansion

Munich-based Holidu, a vacation rental company, announced on Wednesday that it has closed €100M in a Series E round of funding led by 83North.

Northzone, HV Capital, Vintage Investment Partners, Commonfund Capital, Prime Ventures, EQT Ventures, coparion, Senovo, Lios Ventures, and Possible Ventures, also participated in the round. 

The Series E round also includes a venture debt component of €25M from Claret Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.

Holidu says the funds  will fuel  the company’s, and its subsidiary Bookiply’s, roll-out of local office locations, accelerate growth in existing markets, and drive additional product investments into Bookiply and the booking platform Holidu.

Johannes Siebers, co-founder and CEO, says, “We see that our company delivers true value to hosts and guests, which is reflected in our strong host retention and guest satisfaction. We will now scale our region-by-region approach into Europe’s large and attractive hosting market. This financing round is a great vote of confidence in the current environment. We are on the path to building a big company.”

The company raised €37.1M in Series D round of funding in May, 2021.

Holidu: What you need to know

Established in 2014 by Johannes and Michael Siebers, Holidu is a booking platform that offers a catalog of curated and vetted vacation homes for guests. The company has also developed a software and service solution for hosts, Bookiply. 

The SaaS solution, combined with on-the-ground support from local teams, helps single property owners generate more bookings with minimal effort. 

Holidu says the number of managed Bookiply homes has grown from 5,000 to 20,000. As a result, the revenues from Bookiply homes have grown 13x from 2019 to 2022. 

The company claims that the SaaS solution accounts for more than half of the Holidu Group’s revenues. In addition, Holidu has reached more than 110M visitors in the last 12 months.

Bookiply is now active in 19 local offices across Europe and manages properties in several key tourist areas in Spain and Italy. Currently, the company employs 500 people.

Michael Siebers, co-founder and CTO, says, “Holidu has always aimed to solve customers’ problems by leveraging the best technologies and data. Our goal is to build the world’s best software and service platform for hosts and make the guest experience reliable and great.”

Investors

83North is a global venture capital firm that invests across all stages in exceptional entrepreneurs focusing on building global category-leading companies.

Laurel Bowden, Partner at 83North, says, “The Holidu Team are excellent operators, which is crucial to serve the fragmented long tail of vacation rentals with great unit economics and to bring the market to the next level. The team stands in front of a large roll-out opportunity. We are thrilled to be part of the journey and look forward to the road ahead.”