9flats, one of the leading European providers of private short-term rentals, just announced completing a major investment round led by T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom AG.
The multi-million euro funding round was led by T-Venture, and includes additional participation by existing shareholders Redpoint Ventures (Menlo Park, California) and eVenture Capital Partners (Hamburg).
9flats.com will now enter into a strategic partnership with ImmobilienScout24, Germany’s largest real estate marketplace, and overall apply its know-how in online marketing building internet businesses.
Stephan Uhrenbacher, the CEO of 9flats explained the relevance of these steps: “This new round of financing will enable 9flats.com to scale our service across Europe and marks an important step for the company as it grows to become a global player in the online travel sector. T-Venture not only provides 9flats with additional funds, but through the separate partnership with ImmobilienScout24, we will be able to expand our audience in a significant way.”
Christian Leybold, General Partner at eVenture Capital Partners also commented: “When we provided the seed capital for 9flats to Stephan Uhrenbacher just a little over one year ago, we were betting on a serial entrepreneur to help bring the emerging internet business models of the ‘Sharing Economy’ to Europe. We are excited to see the company’s tremendous success in such a short time and the enthusiastic response from consumers as this new way of ‘staying at home away from home’ is being adopted across Europe.”
9flats.com is basically a clone of airbnb that aims to change the way people travel, by providing private apartments as an alternative to hotels. Guests can book individual private places to stay and get a better experience at a lower price than with hotels. On the other side, hosts can earn additional income by renting out their room, apartment or house.
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Competition is a GOOD thing remember. In the end I want me, the consumer to win, not just the first player that happens to enter the market. Airbnb charges 15% commission? Wimdu around 3%? Something like that. People will be listed on both sites. Only when they can’t keep up with demand will they begin to give preference to Wimdu with its lower fees. Then Airbnb will drop their prices, and so on. Fees will eventually reach something close to zero. Then we as consumers win!