Homelike, a marketplace for long-term business apartments,
has raised $14 million in a round led by Spark Capital with participation from existing
investors Cherry Ventures, Lürssen and Coparion.
Founded in 2015, Homelike is a booking platform for business
travelers who want furnished apartments for 30 nights or more.
It currently offers 45,000 apartments from a network of professional suppliers whose units meet certain criteria and are tailored to the needs
of business travelers.
Homelike operates in 100 cities across Europe
including London, Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Zurich, and the new funding will
be used to expand its portfolio into additional international business travel
destinations.
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“Homelike targets one of the fastest-growing rental segments
with a global market volume of $160 billion that is still mainly served offline
by cumbersome processes,” says Alex Finkelstein, partner at Spark Capital.
“We strongly believe that Homelike’s technology platform and
convenient user experience will play a significant role in changing the way
corporations book long-term apartments.”
Homelike’s system includes individual corporate logins and
user management, travel policy configuration and third-party integrations.
Homelike also handles monthly payments including
invoicing with VAT, processing electronic signatures of online rental agreements
and offering insurance to its users. An integrated unit management system allows
suppliers to easily track booking, invoices, rental agreements and unit
performance.
“Compared to the online solutions and product feature used
by the hotel industry, the furnished apartment space is 10 to 15 years behind,
and we are working hard to close this gap every day,” says Dustin Figge, CEO
and co-founder of Homelike.
Homelike says it currently has 15,000 corporate clients
ranging from small startups to large multinational corporations.