Boutique hotel booking site Mr & Mrs Smith has raised six million pounds (US$7.8 million) through crowdfunding in mid October to accelerate the expansion of its hotel portfolio and into new verticals.
The financing came from about 2,000 public investors, ranging from existing members to new customers including angle investors.
Founder and executive chairman, James Lohan, said: “When thinking about the next chapter for our 15th anniversary, we decided that we want to raise more money again, which happens with many growing companies.
“Last year we made 1.5 million pounds EBITDA so we are a profitable group, and for the last 12 months we grew 37 per cent (July 2017- June 2018). Frankly, we don’t technically need money but by raising money, we can move faster.”
Mr & Mrs Smith welcomed a new chairman and created the new position of chief growth officer, which is filled by Julian Diment who was in charge of sales and marketing, Lohan told TTG Asia. The company also recruited a new managing director in the US, with the market growing 45 per cent year on year.
“We will put in more time and effort there so we can curate more quickly, but we are not changing our way of curating. So far, there is a queue of roughly 500 interested hotels globally and we’ll expand the curation team in order to bring these hotels into our portfolio more quickly.”
The new funding also helps fuels SideStory, a tour experiences vertical recently added, which offers guided journeys to discover hidden gems, from photogenic corners, tucked-away market stalls, out-of-sight street art and exclusive ateliers.
Currently, the service is available only in London and Paris, but Lohan aims to roll out to 10 more cities before the end of 2019.
He explained: “It’s just started and we understand our guests’ desire to have more than just a hotel stay.”
While Asia is a sizeable market for the company, expansion in the region is for now constrained by language.
“Out of our 1.5 million membership, Asian membership accounts for 250,000… But (expansion) is a bit restricted at the moment. For now, we are only in English-speaking locations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.
“One of our challenges is that we are a content rich company and we are really investing more into our blogs and main website. So to keep up with editorial and translation, where should it be translated first? Should it be here or Germany? Mr and Mrs Smith will continue to invest more in Asia and is trying to work out what the Chinese play would be,” said Lohan.
Capella Sanya, China
Treeline Urban Resort, Cambodia
Mӧvenpick Resort Kuredhivaru Maldives
Ovolo the Valley, Australia
Artyzen Habitat Hongqiao Shanghai, China
Bangkok’s newest riverside landmark, Iconsiam, hosted its grand opening on Friday to tens of thousands of people in attendance as well as South-east Asia’s largest-ever flying drone display with 1,500 drones.
Built on a 8.8ha plot on Charoen Nakhon Road by the banks of the Chao Phraya River, the US$1.7 billion, 750,000m2 project is a joint venture of Siam Piwat, Magnolia Quality Development Corporation (MQDC) and Charoen Pokphand Group.
Chadatip Chutrakul, director of Iconsiam, dubbed the mega development “a destination – not a mall or a mixed-use development”, as it “brings together, in a single destination, a great riverside location with art, culture, lifestyle pursuits, endless dining options, super-luxury residences and shopping”.
Among Iconsiam’s key features is the River Park, a 10,000m2 riverside community space; SookSiam, a 16,000m2 space spotlighting products from across Thailand’s 77 provinces; and South-east Asia’s longest multimedia water feature, which is designed to be a global iconic attraction “and do for Bangkok what the London Eye does for London and the Botanic Garden at the Marina Bay Sands does for Singapore,” Chutrakul said.
Coming up in July 2019 will be a high-technology auditorium that aims to boost Thailand’s international incentives and convention industry, and the River Museum Bangkok.
Iconsiam also offers more than 7,000 Thai and international retail brands, including Japanese department store Takashimaya and Thailand’s first flagship Apple Store.
Iconsiam also houses two luxury residential condominium buildings developed with MQDC, the Magnolias Waterfront Residences and The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Bangkok – the first Mandarin Oriental branded residential development in South-east Asia.