Online Rentals Site TravelRent secures $2mln from investment fund Frontier Ventures
TravelRent, Russia’s first online service for short-term apartment rentals, has raised $2 million from venture capital fund Frontier Ventures.
Investments will be aimed at reinforcing the team, developing new partnership programs and marketing in order to increase awareness of the brand and extend its number of property listings.
In 2013 TravelRent plans to increase the number of listings in Russia, CIS and the rest of the world to 45,000. By 2015, the company expects to attract more than 5 million registered users.
TravelRent’s team and investors forecast strong potential growth for the TravelRent service as well as for the online travel industry in general. Research suggests that inRussiathis market will grow by 40% with a value of $6 billion during 2012. According to PhoCusWright research, in 2013 internet sales inRussiawill amount to $10.4 billion with one in five travel bookings made online.
“Online booking is the fastest growing sector in the tourism market. Travelers looking for the best deals are now going online and creating a new trend of independent “do-it-yourself” tourism. Today, TravelRent has the largest number of listings for short-term rentals in the Russian Internet. With the new funds we have raised, we are determined to secure our leadership in the sector”, says TravelRent’s CEO Stanislav Frolov.
Dmitry Alimov, founder and managing partner of Frontier Ventures, says: “We are very pleased to be expanding our investment portfolio with a company operating in the rapidly-growing market of apartment rentals. Our partnership is more than just equity financing. Our experience in business and in building innovative Internet projects, in determining a strategy and adapting it for the Russian-speaking market, means we can provide the company with comprehensive support and strengthen TravelRent’s position as the leader of this rapidly-growing sector”.
About the companies
TravelRent is a social online booking service which currently has the largest database in the Russian Internet market with more than 25,000 listings in 38 countries. TravelRent.com is an easy way to find the best proposals within just a few minutes. Online booking can be made 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
TravelRent.com was launched in October 2011 and became the first online service in Russia to offer home rentals for vacations, traveling and for business trips around the world. Its aim is to consolidate the disparate Russian-speaking market of short-term rentals and provide Internet users with a convenient and functional booking service.
TravelRent.com offers apartment owners an easy toolkit to place advertisements, communicate with tenants and conduct financial transactions, guaranteeing that owners receive the payments. Apartment advertisements can be placed for free. The company earns its revenues from bookings (10% of the price).
For more information about TravelRent please visit www.travelrent.com or contact Anna Barinova via phone +7 495 641 59 18 or email: a.barnova@travelrent.com
Frontier Ventures is a venture capital fund that supports entrepreneurs in the Russian-speaking consumer Internet industry. It was founded in 2011 by Dmitry Alimov. The fund works closely with entrepreneurs to build leading businesses in the Russian-speaking Internet. Its partners are serial entrepreneurs with hands-on experience in the launch and development of leading online consumer services. Frontier Ventures also invested in ivi.ru, the leading online video service in the Russian Internet market. For more information please visit www.frontier.ru/en or contact Natella Dzhakeli via phone +7495 625 3306 or email: dzhakeli@mcdp.ru.