Netherlands-based accommodation platform HousingAnywhere has raised €24 million in Series C funding and acquired Dutch classifieds website Kamernet as it seeks to “strengthen its leadership in the Dutch market”.
HousingAnywhere has now raised a total of €35.5m, and the acquisition of the Dutch room, studio, and one-bedroom apartment market-leader Kamernet is its fourth takeover in the past 12 months.
The funding will also help it add 17 new focus cities in Europe, to grow to a total of 32.
“Despite turbulent market conditions, we managed to improve our business model”
The online platform also acquired Germany’s Studenten-WG, Italy’s Stanzazoo and Icelandic rental platform Rentmate in the last year.
While devastating international mobility, the pandemic has offered HousingAnywhere the opportunity to further develop its product, CEO Djordy Seelmann said.
“[The pandemic] enabled us to improve our contribution margins and explore local rental markets while accelerating the inevitable consolidation of the market,” he said.
“Despite turbulent market conditions, we managed to improve our business model, solidify the confidence of our investors and attract new capital.”
Kamernet is HousingAnywhere’s largest acquisition to date, and puts it on the path to become Europe’s largest end-to-end online rental marketplace by the end of 2021. And its mergers and acquisitions team is still looking for more opportunities, HousingAnywhere’s VP of Marketplace Gianluca Valentini noted.
“We are far from finished. Our M&A team is looking to acquire more rental websites, to expand in audience and number of properties that fit the needs of our ever-growing user base,” he said.
“We want to be the catalyst that pushes the rental market to the next phase,” Seelmann continued, which it does by “bringing new products into the market such as HousingAnywhere Payments”, its payments software.
“These new product offerings are built on top of the nascent HousingAnywhere Platform, which we will leverage to realise our vision of turning HousingAnywhere into a super app for rental accommodation,” he said.
VNV Global and Real Web participated in a new equity investment with Ergeny Investments, a single family investment firm, joining as a new investor in January 2020. Early-stage investor henQ Capital sold its stake.
HousingAnywhere acquired new debt financing in July 2020, on the back of a strong rebound of international mobility during the Summer of 2020, it added.
