Vacasa now a unicorn, lands largest vacation rental Series C at $319M

One of the biggest is about to get bigger. North America’s largest vacation rental manager, Vacasa, has secured a $319 million strategic investment round, the largest Series C round to date in that sector.

The investment gives it a valuation “north of $1 billion,” according to the company.

Airbnb – both a competitor and a distribution channel for Vacasa – had the next largest Series C round of $200 million in 2013 (about $220 million in today’s dollars).

Vacasa’s latest funding was led by Silver Lake, with participation from existing investors Riverwood Capital, Level Equity and NewSpring.

Since its founding in 2009, Vacasa has now raised about $526 million and grown its portfolio to more than 23,000 properties in 31 U.S. states and 17 countries – with about 9,000 of those properties coming from Vacasa’s purchase of Wyndham Vacation Rentals that closed last week.

Vacasa plans to use the funding to further develop its technology platform and accelerate expansion into new markets, with the “ultimate goal... to be everywhere guests want to travel.”

Vacasa will also continue to develop its Vacasa Real Estate platform that connects real estate agents, buyers and sellers and has brokerages in markets throughout the United States.

“The opportunity that lies ahead of us is enormous, both on the property management and real estate side of the business,” says Eric Breon, founder and CEO of Vacasa.

“We’re seeing an increased number of buyers looking to purchase vacation homes as an investment, with the intent to rent the property. We’re uniquely positioned to assist our homeowners through the entire lifecycle of their vacation home and are dedicated to continued advancement of our technology to meet the needs of our customers.”

Vacasa says its technology platform, which includes dynamic pricing and multi-channel distribution, helps property owners earn an average of 31% more in their first year with the company. The company says its pricing system uses machine learning based on hundreds of variables such as weather forecasts, location-specific holidays and events, competitor pricing, lead time and more.

In September Vacasa added Google to its list of distribution partners, making it the first vacation rental software system to create a direct API connection to the search platform.

On the guest-service side, Vacasa provides a mobile app, professionally-cleaned properties and round-the-clock guest assistance.

“We believe Vacasa, with its differentiated technology platform that’s already the market leader in North America, has the potential to become a global brand that stands for superior financial returns for homeowners and exceptional experiences for guests,” says Joerg Adams, managing director at Silver Lake.

And says Ben Levin, founder and partner of Level Equity, “Vacasa’s revenue has grown almost seven-fold since our Series A investment nearly four years ago and we expect growth to accelerate in 2020.”

“It is exceptionally rare to see this type of growth, and rarer still at this scale. As the market leader, Vacasa is distinguishing itself as the standard for quality and innovation in an industry with tremendous opportunity that is being fundamentally reshaped by technology," says Jeff Parks, co-founder and managing partner of Riverwood Capital.”