MMC Ventures has led an GBP850,000 investment round in home-swapping website Love Home Swap.
Love Home Swap (www.LoveHomeSwap.com) is an international holiday home exchange website founded by UK serial entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow. Love Home Swap launched in October 2011 to provide members with the opportunity to swap their homes for stylish and unique residences across 70 countries. Users are invited to sign up for membership, with the company generating revenue through member subscriptions. In addition to a home swap service, premium membership offers access to a dedicated travel team, personal concierge, travel guides and other benefits.
Love Home Swap has just agreed its biggest partnership to date with leading parents’ website Mumsnet, giving it access to a new audience of over 4 million users.
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. Recent statistics show that more than twice as many people are planning home swap holidays in 2012 vs 2011 – a rise from 1.6 million to over 3.2 million in the UK.
Rory Stirling (pictured), Investment Director at MMC Ventures, says: “Love Home Swap exemplifies the qualities that we look for in any business that we back – a proven entrepreneurial team, compelling business model and a large underserved market. The business provides a fantastic value proposition to its users, which is demonstrated by its market leading product and highly engaged international user base. Quality and trust are essential parts of any successful collaborative model and we believe Love Home Swap has the ability to transform the home swapping market. We have been hugely impressed with what the team has achieved to date and are very excited about the future of the business.
“Collaborative consumption is disrupting traditional modes of business and reinventing what people consume and how they consume it. This is particularly prevalent in the travel sector where exciting sub sectors are rapidly emerging, enabled by deep social integration and transparent trust features.”
Founder CEO Debbie Wosskow says: “Whilst home-swapping has existed since the 50s, no-one was doing it for a modern ‘Boutique Britain’ – those who love smart hotels and stylish home comforts. For the cost-conscious and travel-curious, home-swapping is the perfect fit. This investment will enable us to cater even better for the millions of cost conscious families and second home owners who are still keen to travel.”
