Holidu raises €40 million to expand new service for vacation rental owners

Munich-based Holidu announced €40 million of Series C funding to expand its signature software-and-service products for the vacation rental market. The round was led by Prime Ventures, with support from coparion and MairDuMont Ventures. All previous investors participated in the round, as well: EQT Ventures, Venture Stars, Senovo, and Chris Hitchen.

Holidu’s first solution for the market has been a search engine that allows vacationers to find their ideal accommodation and book it for the cheapest price, consolidating the fragmented online travel market. The search engine compares the prices of more than 15 million rental properties across 600 different websites including Airbnb, Booking.com and Homeaway. Its search engine is now active in 21 markets and serves more than 10 million visitors per month.

While the brothers who founded the company, Johannes and Michael Siebers, originally set out to solve a pain point for travelers, they realized the owners of vacation rentals need a solution, as well. For this Holidu developed an independent brand, Bookiply.

Bookiply provides a do-it-for-you solution for vacation rental owners through a combination of software and service. First, property listings are distributed to travel websites, availability and calendars synchronized, professional photos and multilingual descriptions uploaded. Then a team of experts takes over traveler communication and helps owners maximize revenues.

Nick Kalliagkopoulos, Principal at Prime Ventures said: “Holidu has developed products that users love on both sides of the vacation rental market. We were impressed by the technology and customer focus of the team and we are excited to partner with them to further scale the business.”

The new funding will be used to further drive product development, both of the Holidu website and the Bookiply software. The company also wants to grow its portfolio of Holidu partners and the number of Bookiply users. To achieve this, Holidu plans to open multiple regional offices.

Michael Siebers, CTO and co-founder said, “We believe in the power of technology and data and that by connecting these two, almost any problem can be solved. The vacation rental market is still ten years behind other digital markets so the opportunity is huge.”