Global short-term rental management company GuestReady Group has raised an additional US$6 million in funding, bringing the total funds raised to almost US$10 million.
The latest round was co-led by Dubai-based VentureSouq and Abramovich-backed Impulse VC, which already led GuestReady’s Seed round in 2017. Many of the existing investors such as Hong Kong’s Aria Group or Australia’s 808 Tech Ventures increased their positions in GuestReady as part of this Series A funding round.
The additional funding will be used to further invest in product development and fuel growth initiatives across Asia-Pacific and Europe, including capitalising on available M&A opportunities.
Christian Mischler, co-founder at GuestReady, told TTG Asia: “We will continue to focus on Asia, the Middle East and Europe. In all three larger regions we see great growth potential. While the market in Europe is ahead of Asia in terms of number of listings but also the service infrastructure available to the ecosystem (such as key lockboxes, linen companies, etc), there is greater growth potential in Asia and the Middle East, which is why we will keep a balanced approach for all three regions.”
Looking forward, GuestReady will invest in building up the operations team in Kuala Lumpur and is in advanced conversations with a number of regional property developers to bring its tech-enabled services to more markets in South-east Asia.
Mischler added: “We now have a white-labelled version of our tech system which we can make available to either smaller property managers so that they can professionalise their vacation rental management, or to property developers so that they can offer a broader set of services to their clientele.
“(GuestReady’s) B2B offering goes beyond services to property developers, and we can support smaller vacation rental management companies to become more tech-enabled and save costs by having streamlined operations,” he added.
GuestReady Group, which currently manages more than 2,000 properties, operates in 14 cities around the world including Hong Kong and Malaysia. It is launched in 2016 by Mischler and CEO Alexander Limpert – the latter was formerly managing director of Foodpanda in the Philippines and Taiwan.
Following its first acquisition in 2017, the fast-growing company has embarked on an aggressive acquisition path in recent months, buying out French competitor BnbLord earlier this year, and Portugal-based Oporto City Flats and France’s We Stay In Paris last year.
Besides marketing vacant residential property listings on short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, the company says it also helps property owners to stay compliant with local housing regulations and to deliver services including housekeeping and guest check-in.
