Flatio acquires digital nomad housing platform flOasis

Czechia / Belgium: Brno-based mid-term letting platform Flatio has announced the acquisition of flOasis, a housing provider for remote workers. 

The deal, which follows Flatio’s £3.6 million acquisition of NomadX in October 2020, builds on the Czech company’s move into the rapidly growing digital nomad space, with an estimated 35 million workers worldwide now classing themselves as digital nomads. The acquisition’s financial terms, a combination of cash and future revenues, remain undisclosed. 

flOasis was set up in 2020 and launched in June 2021 by Lola Casamitjana and Kristina Kutan to make it easier for remote workers to find places to live and work abroad, though mainly in Europe.

The platform has a range of unique listings, including large co-living spaces, sustainable farm stays and luxury beachside villas. Users can search by personal preferences, depending on the type of stay they want, using terms such as “chill”, “active” and “focus”.

Radim Rezek, co-founder and CEO of Flatio, said: “We want to be the number one housing platform for digital nomads and remote workers in Europe, so when the opportunity to acquire flOasis presented itself, we went for it. flOasis is well respected in the community and shares Flatio’s vision: to empower digital nomads and remote workers to live and work from anywhere, so it made sense.

“flOasis has unique listings that are tried and tested by nomads and customised to remote workers, which was a huge draw. We also loved flOasis’ innovative, personalised pioneer programme,” he added.

As part of the deal, Flatio will integrate flOasis’ 236 listings into its platform and plans to onboard another 1,290. The company will also ramp up flOasis’ “innovative, pioneering” programme, which sees influencers pre-review stays to ensure they meet digital nomads’ needs, including strong wifi, dedicated workspaces, community and outdoor space. 

Before the pandemic, Flatio operated mainly in Czechia and Hungary, catering to students, professionals, and medical travellers. However, the company has since shifted focus to digital nomads and remote workers after seeing a swell in interest during 2020. 

Rezek continued: “Since the pandemic, people have more freedom to live and work from anywhere. We have seen a rapid acceleration in demand, not just from traditional digital nomads but former office workers, families and executives wanting to improve their work-life balance by working from anywhere.

“The workation trend is here to stay, so we must continue to meet the needs of modern-day remote workers,” he added.

Since then, Flatio claims to have seen a 1,222 per cent increase in revenue from digital nomads and remote workers, making up 43 per cent of total revenues.

The company, which has listings in over 300 destinations, expects the acquisition to help bolster its offering in Europe.

In 2021, Flatio also became the official accommodation partner of the world’s first digital nomad village on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira.

Kristina Kutan, former CEO of flOasis, said: “We connected with Flatio on shared values and our joint mission: empowering digital nomads and remote workers to live and work at their best. We are glad to count on Flatio’s experience and ability to help bring flOasis vision at scale!”

A report published earlier this year by career advice platform Ladders estimated that around 25 per cent of all professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022.

In the UK, meanwhile, job postings mentioning remote work grew by 319 per cent between January 2020 and March 2022, according to the BBC.