Property management platform Guesty raises $50 million led by Apax as travel returns

Rental property management company Guesty announced on Tuesday that it has raised $50 million in series D funding, led by the Apax Digital Fund with participation from the AMI Opportunities Fund, both advised by Apax Partners, and existing investors Viola Growth, Flashpoint, Vertex Ventures, Kingfisher Investment Advisors, and La Maison Partners.

The round brings the company’s total funding to $110 million. The company employs 250 people, 160 of them in Israel. News of the round follows Guesty’s announcement earlier this month that it acquired fellow property management software and Y Combinator alum, MyVR, to expand the company’s footprint in North America and bring more standardization to the space. Guesty also announced on Tuesday that it has acquired property management software, Your Porter.

Guesty graduated from Y Combinator in 2014 and currently provides customers in over 80 countries with an end-to-end solution in which they can manage their portfolio of properties across a variety of online travel platforms. With the understanding that travel would recover, over the past year Guesty enhanced the platform’s functionalities to support more property types, while also focusing on addressing consumer behavioral patterns that emerged as a result of the pandemic.

“We are entering an exciting chapter in our company’s life cycle with short-term rentals having gone mainstream as a direct result of the pandemic, now catering to an increased user base that expects the comfort and privacy of a home coupled with hotel-like amenities,” said Amiad Soto, co-founder and CEO of Guesty. “U.S. 2021 summer reservation volume alone is currently 282% higher compared to last year and 32% higher compared to pre-Covid, 2019 volume. These numbers highlight a bright future ahead, and Guesty is looking forward to being there every step of the way to support our customers and an industry that has shown resilience during an unimaginable year in which many had to quickly pivot and adjust their business models to stay afloat. We are coming out on the other side stronger, together as a community that believes in the evolution of travel.”

Guesty aims to use the investment and growing team to power a year of hypergrowth in key markets, enhance its product capabilities to serve diverse customer segments, onboard top-notch talent and ultimately, be a pillar of support for the entrepreneurs who have built businesses off the democratization of hospitality. The company will also continue to build out its marketplace of third-party integration partners - from digital concierges to remote staff management systems to keyless entry solutions - in order to aid customers in providing “contact-free” guest experiences, all from within the Guesty dashboard.

"We are incredibly excited to partner with the team at Guesty to help accelerate their mission to bring sophisticated property management solutions to a rapidly shifting global ecosystem,” said Daniel O’Keefe, Managing Partner at Apax Digital, who will join Guesty’s Board of Directors.

“Guesty is a stand-out player in a rapidly growing market,” added Dave Evans, Principal at Apax Digital. “Having just acquired MyVR and Your Porter, and given the company’s differentiated product offering, Guesty is now the logical platform to consolidate the market, working with hosting businesses of all sizes.”