Following its investment in December 2011, MMC Ventures has led another GBP800,000 round of investment into Love Home Swap, the international holiday home exchange website founded by serial entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow.
Love Home Swap has appointed David Kelly as chairman (Amazon, Lastminute, eBay, mydeco, Rackspace) and Sean Cornwell (Google, eHarmony) as non-executive director.
Love Home Swap launched in 2011 to provide members with the opportunity to swap their homes with stylish residences across more than 100 countries – enabling people to holiday like a local by staying in inspiring homes around the world for free. Whether a Parisian loft for a long weekend, a Californian condo for a fortnight, or a Balinese villa for a month, Love Home Swap allows holidaymakers to enjoy unique travel experiences in homes as nice as their own – and save thousands on accommodation costs.
Statistics show that more than twice as many people planned a home swap holiday in 2012 versus 2011 – a rise from 1.6 million to over 3.2 million in the UK alone. Collaborative consumption, which places a value on sharing rather than spending or owning, has had a significant impact on the global travel market, with home-swapping one of the latest popular trends.
Wosskow says: “It’s great that MMC Ventures, one of the most active investors in London right now, continue to support Love Home Swap. As a UK based business with a global ambition and a global footprint, this latest round of funding enables us to continue to expand and offer our members the best range of stylish homes in locations across the world. With a fast growing community of thousands of members in over 100 countries – why spend when you can swap?"
Rory Stirling, investment director, MMC Ventures, says: “We believe Love Home Swap is building a really impressive business in the social travel space. Swapping offers a truly unique value proposition and an additional layer of trust to users. The business has experienced nearly 10x growth since we first met the team a year ago and we continue to be really impressed with the speed of execution. MMC focus on backing British businesses that can succeed on a global scale – we have re-invested in Love Home Swap to continue building a best in class product and we think there is a significant global opportunity.”
