23/5/2019 – Vietnamese travel rental startup Luxstay has just secured a US$4.5 million bridge funding with the participation of two new investors from Korea: GS Shop and Bon Angels.
This combined with the prior funding of US$3 million from CyberAgent Ventures, and other VC firms earlier this year marks a substantial early stage investment for the Vietnamese startup.
Existing backers of the travel tech startup also includes Genesia Ventures, Nextrans, and two Singaporean venture capital firms – ESP Capital and Founders Capital.
Founded in 2017 by Steven Nguyen, Luxstay is a home-sharing platform currently operating in Vietnam, which targets the Southeast Asia market. It differentiates itself from other travel agency platforms by focusing on the luxury customer segment.
The platform is different from Airbnb in part that it works with local partners in other countries with a large number of inbound tourists, such as South Korea and Japan.
GS Shop and Bong Angels will be important connections for the company to other strategic partners and investors in Korea in pursuit of international expansion, Luxstay added.
“In developed countries, home-sharing accounts for 10-20 percent of the home rental market. This shows a huge opportunity for this industry in Vietnam, which is expected to reach US$2-4 billion in 2025.”
After more than two years of development, Luxstay is growing quickly and was said to have reached a valuation exceeding US$100 million in 2018.
The startup is aiming at an annual turnover of over US$300 million in 2023, which will account for about 30 percent of the market share.
Luxstay is in the process of working with financial investors and strategic partners to deploy the next round of capital, as well as looking to raise their Series A in 2019.
