Vietnamese rental startup Luxstay raises $3 million in bridge round
Vietnam: Rental sharing startup Luxstay has raised $3 million in a bridge round from investors including CyberAgent Ventures and Y1 Ventures.
It said in a statement that CyberAgent Ventures, which is helping the startup with an internal structuring exercise and facilitated the bridge round, first invested in the firm in early 2018.
Luxstay, which was founded in 2016 by Vietnamese entrepreneur Steven Nguyen, is an online platform which connects homeowners looking for short-term rentals with tourists or business travellers.
The platform, which claims to have a network of 10,000 homes in the nation, received investment from Vietnam-based fund ESP Capital and Genesia Ventures in its initial round. Genesia Ventures then led a $2.5 million pre-Series A investment in the Airbnb-like startup, before CyberAgent Ventures injected an undisclosed amount into the firm.
CyberAgent Ventures’ investment director (Vietnam and Thailand) Nguyen Manh Dzung said: “The sharing economy is an inevitable movement in many businesses, and it will affect the tourism and real estate markets. We believe that this business model, like Luxstay, is working as intended and can be a game-changer in its market in the near future.”
He added that the home-sharing model that Luxstay is supporting will grow quickly as it brings in significant income to homeowners, and also takes advantage of the available properties. The model will contribute to the development of the real estate industry and as a result boost the tourism industry.
Recently, Luxstay and Japan’s Rakuten LIFULL STAY entered into a partnership in the vacation rental business as part of their expansion plans.
As per the agreement, Rakuten LIFULL STAY will provide its inventory of Japanese vacation rental properties listed on its site ‘Vacation STAY’ to Luxstay, and vice versa. In addition, the partners will work together on collaborative marketing activities aimed at tourists from both countries.
