MagicStay gains €3 million in Series A funding

France: MagicStay is set to receive €3 million in a Series A funding round following a financial commitment made by a group of individual investors.

The investment is being provided by representatives at Simmons & Simmons and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking. The latest round of funding into the vacation rental booking platform for corporate travellers will amount to up to €8 million invested since its inception in 2014.

The firm, which is based in France, says it aims to sign 25 per cent of the major companies in the country and bring its property offering in its portfolio to one million by the end of 2019.

It also plans to participate in a Series B round to support its growth ambitions.

Currently, MagicStay has 400,000 homes in its portfolio and it places a particular focus on satisfying the needs of corporate travellers. Of that number, the company offers nearly 200,000 studios, as well as apartments, houses and luxury villas in more than 90 countries worldwide.

Furthermore, it is targeting a range of options in the corporate travel sector, including direct sales to individuals, travel managers, business travel agencies and event organisers, according to Phocuswire.
Michelin, Vinci, Cisma and Bermaplast are among the major global firms to have come onboard with the platform.

This follows a previous €1.5 million investment round in MagicStay in early 2018 and the signing of a deal with Accor-owned Onefinestay in February last year. The latter agreement meant that 1,000 corporate traveller-suited properties in cities like London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles on Onefinestay’s platform would also be listed on MagicStay.

The rental platform was launched in 2014 by CEO Valéry Linÿer and William Lecerf (formerly MagicEvent) as they claimed to be the first alternative booking platform dedicated exclusively to business travel.

The respective founders say MagicStay provides a solution for business travellers seeking “spacious, comfortable apartments at a reasonable cost” in major business hubs around the world. It coincides with a wider corporate travel trend which is seeing business professionals increasingly keen to benefit from the same service in private lodgings that leisure tourists receive during hotel stays.

For more information about MagicStay, visit the website here.