Hostaway has successfully gained a major foothold in the rapidly growing vacation rentals market, alongside its partners – Booking.com, AirBnb, and Expedia to name a few – who are streamlining the entire industry. Hostaway enables short-term property managers through an integrated SaaS system that has the ability to manage operations and increase their revenues, by integrating into all major channels (Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway, and more).
“Our customers are professionals whose traditional business models have been to rent out dozens of homes worldwide. Today, it is no longer enough to manage your properties on the one sales channel and everybody’s business model is to be present everywhere, all the time. Which is exactly what Hostaway offers,” says Marcus Räder, the CEO and co-founder at Hostaway.
Since its launch in 2015, Hostaway has grown to a global team of 30 members in Barcelona, Toronto, Helsinki, Melbourne, and Kiev. The team itself is made up of nearly 20 nationalities, a focus on gender equality, all the while speaking over 10 languages. Hostaway is currently looking for talent for their Sales, Customer Success, Engineering, and Marketing teams across Toronto, Barcelona and Helsinki, hoping to double their team by Jan 2019.
“Our focus on diversity and global culture as key values, is ultimately what has helped us achieve the success we have today,” says co-founder Mikko Nurminen. Elaborating on Hostaway’s culture he says “From the very beginning, we have made diversity, culture, and internationalism the core values to drive our business model. We were able to create high-functioning communication processes, cover all time zones to match our customers’ needs, and find the most talented people from all around the world.” In September 2018, Hostaway took all 30 of its team members to Barcelona for a 7-day company meetup.
The short-term rentals market continues to see rapid and steady growth, with a projected market valuation of $190 billion by 2021. Hostaway has their gears set on becoming the industry’s largest player.
Backed by one of Finland’s leading venture capital firms in the B2B software space, Vendep saw the value and potential in the Hostaway team, immediately deciding to get involved in their rapid growth and development.
“We were very impressed by Hostaway’s quick growth during the course of this year,” says Hannu Kytölä from Vendep Capital. “This success was achieved by building a seasoned team delivering world-class customer service on an easy-to-use channel management platform, which delivered what it promised: hassle-free growth for its customers.Vendep Capital is excited to back the Hostaway team on their journey to success and growth ahead.”
Since September 2018, Hostaway has been growing out of the top incubator in North America, the DMZ.
“DMZ has been a massive help for us. Their mentorship and network makes it easier for us to attract talent and accelerate our growth. The Toronto tech scene is booming and we’re right at the crux of this momentum with the rest of the big tech-leagues,” says Marcus Räder.
Hostaway has collected a total of EUR 2.4 million in funding from investors and Business Finland and has several successful Finnish serial entrepreneurs.
For additional information:
Marcus Räder, co-founder, CEO
+1 416 821 3601
marcus@hostaway.com
Mikko Nurminen, co-founder
+358 40 701 3135
mikko@hostaway.com
Photos
Team photo and management team Saber Kordestanchi, Mikko Nurminen, Alexandra Logushova, Robert Hoogendam ja Marcus Räder
Hostaway is an enterprise solution for managing short-term rentals. Hostaway offers all the tools a property manager needs to grow their business, reach the largest sales channels, delegate tasks, and optimize their performance in one place. For more information, visit www.hostaway.com
Vendep Capital Fund II invests mainly in Finnish startups offering software to B2B customers. Founded in April 2017, the target size of the fund is €40 million. The funds have been raised from Finnish private and institutional investors such as Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) and The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The fund may make investments alone or as part of a syndicate. www.vendep.com
