Scotland: based in Edinburgh vacation rental marketing platform TravelNest has secured initial growth capital of £3 million from the Scottish National Investment Bank.
Along with new funding from existing investors, the startup will use this investment to target new markets, increase its service offering and strengthen its team to capitalize on the post-pandemic tourism recovery.
TravelNest aims to improve vacation rental occupancy rates by automating marketing and increasing exposure on booking sites such as Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor and Vrbo, while reducing administration for owners.
The company secured £1.8m funding of Silicon Valley Bank [SVB] and Scottish Enterprise at the end of 2020, following a £3m seed round in 2017 and a £5.1m Series A funding round in 2019. TravelNest launched its software product in 2018.
Mark Munro, executive director of sustainable investing at the bank, told insider.co.uk: “TravelNest is an exciting business in the travel technology space with significant potential to expand globally.
“The investment confirms Edinburgh and Scotland as one of the UK’s fastest growing tech hubs and an incubator for tech companies, aligning with the bank’s innovation mission and supporting the key elements of the Scottish Technology and Ecosystem Review as well as the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Initiatives, supporting a technology business focused on entrepreneurship and the creation of skilled jobs,” he said. -he adds.
TravelNest has already received funding through the Early Stage Growth Challenge Fund as part of an early stage support scheme announced by the Scottish Government in summer 2020. The fund, managed by Scottish Enterprise [SE]was created to help Scotland’s most promising emerging businesses continue to innovate at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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