Paris-based Le Collectionist, a luxury travel platform that offers luxury villa rentals in Europe, announced on Friday that it has secured €60M in growth funding led by Highland Europe.
Experiential luxury specialists OLMA, Famille C (the office of the Courtin and Clarins families), Swiss banks Pictet and Lombard Odier, also participated in the funding round.
Notable business angels Nicolas Beraud, Fabrice Grinda, Nathalie Le Roy, and Xavier Romatet also participated in the round with the support of its current investor Red River West.
The company says it will use the funds to accelerate the expansion of the business through selective acquisitions where demand for Le Collectionist’s curation and quality is high.
Le Collectionist intends to open more than 120 positions in 2023 to develop its central office in Paris and existing local offices in France, Barcelona, Ibiza, and Switzerland, as well as to open new local offices in London and NYC.
Le Collectionist co-founder Max Aniort says, “Holidays are about creating memories and sharing once-in-a-lifetime moments with the people we love. This lies at the heart of everything we do at Le Collectionist. We want our guests to be given the best experiences and the attention they deserve to embrace and share precious time with family and friends. It’s great to have Irena and Highland Europe on this journey, as we share the same philosophy of excellence and leadership in everything we do.”
Le Collectionist: What you need to know
Founded in 2014 by Eliott Cohen-Skalli, Max Aniort, and Olivier Cahane, Le Collectionist offers luxurious homes to rent in 30+ summer and winter destinations globally, personalising them with each destination’s best services and experiences.
The Paris-based company carefully selects the homeowners it partners with by signing exclusive agreements. The company claims that only 3 per cent of homeowners who apply to its platform each year make this highly sought-after list.
Le Collectionist currently partners with owners of 1,800 properties across 30 destinations, including the French Riviera, the South-West of France, the Balearic Islands, several destinations in Portugal including Comporta and the Algarve, a large array of the beautiful Italian regions such as Puglia and Tuscany, the French, Swiss and Austrian Alps, and also the Caribbean, Morocco, South Africa, and Costa Rica, and more.
Le Collectionist’s tailored concierge services are delivered through on-the-ground teams who create bespoke experiences and itineraries for guests.
The company says every service is handcrafted and curated through its partnerships with trusted guides, experience providers, restaurateurs, chefs, and other local artisans. As a result, it helps support local communities, skills, traditions, and craftsmanship.
Since 2020, the French company claims that its properties have risen four-fold and tripled the number of new destinations in that time, grown the number of active properties by 3.5x, and this growth has generated a 5.5x increase in revenue.
The company’s global expansion has been supported by key acquisitions, including Bramble Ski (ski chalet rental leader in Switzerland), Vallat group (rental activity of French Alps real estate), The Greek Villas, and the top property management company in Ibiza.
Investors
Based out of London, Highland Europe invests in exceptional growth-stage software and consumer internet companies.
To date, the UK VC has raised over €1.8B and has invested in companies such as Adjust, AMCS, Camunda, ContentSquare, and more.
Irena Goldenberg, Partner at Highland Europe, says, “Le Collectionist has become a beacon for luxury, experiential holidays. It’s a testament to the team and their unique and tailored approach to curating holidays that the company is now the world’s leading luxury experience provider, and a trusted brand, with the leading customer satisfaction metrics across the entire industry. The team is as selective about the owners they partner with and the experiences they offer as their customers, and we’re thrilled to be joining them.“
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