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Denmark: Danish premium holiday home rental platform Landfolk has raised €10.3 million in a Series A funding round.
The funding round was led by EIFO with participation from existing investor SEED Capital and Heartland.
At a time when there are more than seven million holiday homes across Europe, and they are empty for more than 300 days a year according to Landfolk the company believes it can continue on its current growth trajectory by expanding its footprint further into Europe and driving innovation within the industry.
Co-founded in 2021 by a group of former Airbnb employees, Landfolk plans to use the investment to accelerate its market expansion, bolster its product innovation and brand-building efforts, and forge itself as a leading lifestyle brand in the vacation rental market, with close ties to the burgeoning trend of mental wellness.
The company also recently expanded its proprietary marketplace to include cleaning partners, making all processes 100 per cent automatic to both hosts, cleaning partners and internally.
“We’re a seasoned founder team and we probably have one of the most experienced and skilled product teams in Europe when it comes to building marketplaces. This tech-driven approach ensures seamless experiences for both homeowners and guests, and is instrumental to our success – especially when we think ahead in terms of scaling and expanding into new markets,” he added.
Since its founding three years ago, Landfolk has grown to more than 3,000 handpicked, premium holiday homes and broadened its footprint into Norway, Germany and Sweden.
The company sets out to tap into the “vast and under-utilised” supply of second homes across Northern Europe. It claims that 85 per cent of the 1.3 million second homes in the region are not being rented out [and standing empty for an average of 300 days a year] and that 70 per cent of the second homes on its own platform have either never been rented out before or are exclusively listed on Landfolk.
Looking ahead, the Danish startup intends to expand further into Europe and capture growing demand for short-term rentals in “sunny” destinations, propelled by the Series A funding. Landfolk previously closed a “seven figure” pre-seed financing round in April 2022 and a €3.8 million seed funding round in March 2023.
Jacob Bratting, partner and head of tech and industry investments at EIFO, said: “Landfolk enables high utilisation of housing assets and gives more people access to some amazing places across Northern Europe. It’s an obvious way to bring more tourism and more jobs to rural areas.
“Landfolk is a great example of a company that can become a beacon within the tourism industry in Europe,” he added.
