Vacation rental technology specialist Hostaway has raised $175 million in fresh funding.
The investment in the Finland-based company, which offers services including property management, channel management and analytics and reporting tools, was led by growth equity firm PSG.
Hostaway, which launched in 2016, plans to put the funds towards recruitment, strengthening customer service and further growth, with acquisitions potentially in the cards.
Speaking to PhocusWire, Marcus Rader, co-founder and CEO of the company, said Hostaway wants to increase its current head count of 120 to about 200 by the end of the year and is recruiting across all roles.
He also said the funding “opened the door for acquisitions” adding: “In the future when we make decisions about whether we build or partner with companies, we might also acquire companies to achieve the goal, and we’ll be able to offer a broader variety of services in the future as well.”
Rader acknowledged the difficulty of raising capital currently but said it’s achievable if “you happen to be in a recession-proof industry, you happen to be growing well and you are very profitable.”
In a statement about the funding, Hostaway said it has increased revenues more than tenfold since 2021.
On maintaining that level of growth, Rader said: “The law of big numbers will hit us at some time, but so far we’re not seeing any slowdown.”
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He also believes there will be further consolidation in the industry with “a lot of really good companies out there that aren’t able to raise capital and maybe we can work something out with them.”
Rader said the company had a “buffet of offers” for investment but that PSG wanted to invest in Hostaway and “not turn it into something it isn’t.”
Edward Hughes, managing director of PSG, said: “We are impressed with the quality of the Hostaway team, their vision and execution in building what is, in our view, a highly differentiated category leader with multiple levers of value creation. We believe the company has a significant opportunity to lead this industry, as it continues to scale its integrated platform, expand globally and help its customers meet the growing demand in the short-term rental market. We look forward to partnering with Hostaway in this new exciting chapter.”
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