Luxstay, a Vietnamese rental-sharing startup founded in 2016, announced that it has raised US$3 million in a bridge round from several investors, including Y1 Ventures and CyberAgent Ventures.
The bridge round is Luxstay’s third time to raise funds. The Vietnamese startup is already negotiating with venture capital firms to expand this funding to US$5 million.
At present, Luxstay maintains a network of 10,000 accommodation locations across Vietnam. “There is also an undertow that is spreading quickly in the field of home-sharing,” a Luxstay representative said. “Thousands of homes and vacation villas across Vietnam are joining the vacation rental business, and it will soon become a giant industry in the near future.”
Luxstay founder and CEO Nguyen Van Dung said millions of homes, apartments, and vacation villas in the country are ready to join the vacation rental market. This could result in thousands of accommodations joining Luxstay in the next five years. “The homestay market, with the current growth rate, will be soon booming in Vietnam and greatly impact the tourism and real estate industries as well as the users’ habit,” he said.
With the fresh funds, Luxstay will expand its business by introducing new products and services. The company expects to raise over US$10 million during its Series A round in mid-2019.
The Airbnb-like startup raised US$500,000 in its seed round in 2017, backed by Japan’s Genesia Ventures and ESP Capital. It raised another US$2.5 million in March 2018 in a funding round backed by the two existing investors and newcomers Founders Capital and Y1 Ventures. CyberAgent Ventures also injected an undisclosed amount into the firm.
CyberAgent Ventures Vietnam and Thailand director Dzung Nguyen said Luxstay’s business model can be a game changer in its market anytime soon, indicating that homeowners will be receptive to Luxstay’s home-sharing service as it is a “great source of income” and contributes to the development of the real estate industry.
Vietnamese sharing economy is on the rise. The sector is expected to reach US$335 billion in global value by 2025, or a 22-fold jump in a decade, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers research cited by Rebecca Bryant, Australian Embassy Charge D’Affaire in Vietnam, when she was delivering a speech at a local conference on the sharing economy in the country.
In November, Singapore-based co-living startup Hmlet raised US$6.5 million in a Series A round backed by Sequoia India. The funding, according to Hmlet, will be used to expand its business in Southeast Asia.
Editor: Brady Ng