HomeAway, the global vacation rental portal, has deepened its penetration of the Asian market by acquiring Singapore-based Travelmob, the regional equivalent to Airbnb.
It's an all-cash deal, with a 63% investment in Travelmob. The M&A process is expected to close in next few weeks, but the terms weren't disclosed.
HomeAway, the majority shareholder, confirmed that Travelmob would continue to operate independently.
Travelmob launched its operation in July 2012, secured $1 million funding, and currently lists 14,000 vacation rentals in the Asia-Pacific region. (Tnooz previously reviewed it in this TLabs)
Since then, Travelmob has been scaling quickly (This infographic supports the point). HomeAway plans to spend $2 million to scale Travelmob further.
In March, HomeAway had partnered with Travelmob. That marked the company's third Asian partnership, after it had cut deals with China’s TuJia and Singapore's Wego.
Interestingly, HomeAway is also one of the investors in China-based vacation rental playerTujia, a company that recently secured $64 million in funding.
In another sign of HomeAway's interest in Asia, the company recently opened sales offices in Bangkok and Thailand.
Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway, says:
"Economists note over 100 million people will enter the Asian middle class each of the next several years.
We believe this will have significant implications for not only travel but also for the purchase of homes, both of which drive HomeAway's growth.
We're excited to work with the experienced travelmob team to address today's market needs in Asia -- where vacation rentals are mostly new, but alternative accommodations are not -- to build scale and accelerate the development of the vacation rental industry."
Competitors of Travelmob in Asia includes Singapore-based Roomorama, TripVillas and TheVillaGuide, India-based Oravel and TheOtherHome.
Get the backstory:
About a year ago, we wrote in Tnooz about the fast-scaling Travelmob and changing landscape of Asian travel technology.
and
Travelmob passes Go, collects $1 million, and plots its future