Europe: Camper van and motorhome rental agencies, Yescapa and Goboony, have announced a merger and parallel fundraising of €7 million to grow their footprint in Europe and expand into new international markets.
In a bid to establish “the largest platform for sharing leisure vehicles in Europe”, the two companies have placed all of their assets in a parent holding company to expand in Europe, ahead of fulfilling their American growth ambitions in the future.
Yescapa currently has a presence in France, Spain, Portugal and French-speaking Belgium [Wallonia], while Goboony has an existing footprint in the Netherlands, the UK and Flemish Belgium.
Yescapa CEO Benoît Panel said: “We had already made acquisitions on our own. Today, our goal is to consolidate the market. There are fewer and fewer players but the sector remains fragmented.
“We have good geographical complementarity and the ambition to set up in the Nordic countries, where the number of leisure vehicles is very large, as well as in Eastern Europe,” he added.
To accelerate their expansion, the two companies have raised a combined €7 million in a funding round led by IXO Private, No Such Ventures and MAIF Avenir, with a second larger round of between €15 million and €30 million already in the offing by the end of 2024. Goboony previously raised €6 million in funding in December 2021.
Panel said: “These funds will enable us to improve our tools, in particular by integrating new services. We are thinking, for example, of parking solutions, to improve the customer experience.
“Today, Yescapa and Goboony represent 60 per cent of the size of the world leader. This future fundraising would allow us to compete with the biggest players in the market by making new acquisitions, continuing to improve our products and conquering new countries,” he added.
The two companies claim to offer 2.5 million vehicles between them – double the number they had ten years ago – and they are aiming to add another 700,000 by 2025.
Together, the two platforms support 350,000 holidaymakers each year and are present in ten countries across Europe.
