Lodgify, the Barcelona-based vacation rental software startup, today announced it has secured a $5 million round of Series A funding. Participants of the round are the existing investors Nauta Capital, HOWZAT Partners and Business Angels, as well as the new investor Intermedia. It brings the total funding amount to $7.3 million to date. Lodgify will use the fresh capital to scale the team, accelerate product development and increase marketing efforts globally.
Founded in 2012, the Software-as-a-Service company Lodgify is focused on building direct channel technology which empowers vacation rental owners and property managers to create a professional website and grow direct bookings, free from commissions. We first introduced you to Barcelona-based Lodgify in August 2014, and also covered their seed funding rounds in 2015 and 2016.
Lodgify CEO Dennis Klett commented: “Lodgify stands out from other software players because of our razor-sharp product focus. We are not a Property Management System which typically focuses on on-site administrative tasks. Instead, our software enables our users to easily build and grow their own online booking channel.”
Beyond the direct channel, the company is also dedicated to building deep connectivity to the largest booking portals, such as its API integrations with Booking.com and Airbnb. Lodgify’s multi-channel platform provides seamless, advanced connections which make it easy for lodging operators to start their business and receive bookings – both from external sources and their own websites.
Jordi Viñas, partner at Nauta Capital, stated: “What really strikes us about Lodgify’s product is that, while other software players in this space solely focus on large, established property managers, Lodgify’s self-service software addresses the needs of both individual vacation rental owners and property management businesses. At an industry level, 60-70% of properties come from long-tail, individual owners who need an easy and scalable solution to create an online presence and get more bookings.”
The $5 million investment will drive Lodgify’s growth by expanding their team and, in particular, the product development department. This will allow Lodgify to develop new features at an even quicker pace, in line with the company’s overall plans for the coming years.
The vision of the Barcelona-based Lodgify team is to make their direct channel technology accessible to any lodging business, no matter the size or segment. Similar to how Shopify evolved, from a software for entrepreneurs to also cater to enterprise clients, in the future, Lodgify will continue to be used by small-to-medium sized vacation rental operators, and also by large enterprise-level hotel chains who want to run their entire website on our platform.
