According to 36Kr sources, Indonesian Accommodation booking site Travelio recently announced completion of a US$4 million round of financing led by Vynn Capital with participation from Stellar Kapital, Insignia Venture Partners, Indogen Capital and Fenox Venture Capital. This round of fund raising will be used for rapid market expansion, recruiting of talents and to optimize Travelio’s products, as cited by e27.
Travelio was founded in March 2015 and has raised US$2 million in a pre-series A financing led by Shangai-based venture capital firm Gobi Partners in 2016. While both Travelio and Airbnb offers accommodation options ranging from hotels, apartments to private villas and marketplace function that allows for two-way options for landlords and tenants, Travelio allows tenants only to liaise with owner’s agent.
The ‘negotiation model’ works well in the Indonesian market, with traditionally low hotel occupancy rates, as explained by Christina Suriadjaja, Travelio’s cofounder. This special feature allows tenants to bargain for better rates by submiting their own acceptable price range at a fixed rate on Travelio’s website for the owner to decide, considering factors like check-in times. Once the offer has been accepted, payment can be made directly via Travelio. Travelio is also the first Indonesian company that applies VR functionality to the rental platform to enhance tenant viewing experience, according to Dealstreetasia.
Currently, Travelio has a team of more than 80 staff, with more than 4,000 properties available for rent with a presence in 25 cities.
Short-term rental market space in Indonesia is becoming more saturated and faces greater competition. Rental platforms such as Pegipegi and AiryRooms are some examples. Chinese capital is also flooding the space, with the likes of another unicorn, Traveloka who has raised US$500 million in financing from the likes of JD.com and Sequoia Capital amongst other assets.