Israeli startup Guesty, that offers tools for property managers that list on platforms like HomeAway and Airbnb, has recently announced that it has raised $35 million, in its latest funding round. Guesty says that the money will go towards company growth, inspired by the number of properties managed in about 70 countries through its platform that doubled to over 100,000 users in the last year.
The company is not disclosing valuation with this round, which was led by Viola Growth with participation from Vertex Ventures, Journey Ventures, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, La Maison Compagnie d’Investissement, TLV Partners and Magma Ventures. But Amiad Soto, the CEO and co-founder, noted that it too has “more than doubled” since its last funding almost a year ago. PitchBook notes that round was around $90 million post-money, so this would put the current valuation at at least $180 million, likely more.
The idea for Guesty came about like many of the best startup ideas do: out of a personal need. In 2013, twin brothers Amiad and Koby were renting out their own apartments on Airbnb, and found themselves spending a lot of time doing the work needed to list and manage those properties.
Their first stab at a business was an all-in-one service to help hosts get their properties ready and subsequently tidied up for listings. “I was cleaning apartments, Koby was doing the business development, and my girlfriend was doing the laundry,” Soto told me in an interview. They quickly realized that this was never going to scale, “and also that our competitive advantage was building software. We are computer geeks.”
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