The Series D funding round is led by 83North with participation from existing investors; Prime Ventures, EQT Ventures, Coparion, Senovo, Kees Koolen, Lios Ventures, Venture Stars and Chris Hitchen. Claret Capital (formerly Harbert European Growth Capital) also participated with both equity and debt. The new investment brings the company’s total funding to more than $120M since its foundation.
The company’s mission is to make the search and booking of vacation rentals easy. Holidu is active in 21 countries with its search engine that combines more than 15 million vacation rental offers from over a thousand travel sites and property managers. Under the Bookiply brand, the company also helps vacation rental owners to get more bookings with less effort through a software-and-service solution.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the travel industry especially hard, in 2020 Holidu’s revenues grew substantially compared to 2019. Moreover, its search business became operationally profitable. In July 2020 alone, more than 27 million travelers used the Holidu website, making it one of the largest platforms for vacation rentals worldwide. Also, Bookiply significantly expanded its customer base of vacation rental owners and has become the largest supplier of vacation rentals in important leisure destinations such as the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and Sardinia.
The new funding will enable Holidu to further accelerate both, the profitable growth of its vacation rental search engine and the expansion of its vacation rental software business with Bookiply. The company plans to double its technology organization and to invest in new partnerships for supply acquisition to best meet the increased demand of travelers for private accommodation. To offer the best possible service for regional vacation rental owners, the company is opening further Bookiply offices across Europe.
'With Bookiply we have become the number one supplier of vacation rentals in several regions. Thanks to our regional approach and our technologically optimized processes, we are able to economically acquire new vacation rentals. This round of financing is a testament to how far we’ve come in that regard, and how much opportunity is still ahead of us.'