Stayzilla.com, an online aggregator of hotel rooms and home stays with a footprint of 35,000 properties across 4,500 towns, is looking to raise $50-75 million in Series C funding from new investors in March 2016.
In January, the company had raised $20 million from Nexus Venture Partners in Series B funding with participation from initial investors Matrix Partners. Prior to that, it had received $5 million in Series A funding from Matrix in 2013 and $500,000 from the Indian Angel Network in 2012.
“We have enough money to see us through till March,” Stayzilla founder and CEO Yogendra Vasupal told BusinessLine .
“We are currently busy executing our growth plan, where the focus is on the alternative stay (home stay) segment to propel Stayzilla into its next phase of growth. Although we have received a lot of interest from PE and hedge funds who want to invest in our company, we will wait until March to sign the term sheet.”
Stayzilla offers an inventory of 800,000 rooms across three categories including organised 3-star hotels, home stays and unorganised segment players such as guest houses and lodges.
It is looking to raise the revenue contribution of the home stay segment from the current 20 per cent to 50 per cent by 2018.
Alternative stay To tap the alternative stay market, Stayzilla has rolled out a new mobile app and brand campaign. The latter, invites potential hosts of home stays to open up their homes to travellers.
“The market for home stays in India is large and fragmented with a shortage of 10 lakh rooms — a huge opportunity that we want to tap. We have consolidated our unstructured room inventory and looking to meet the needs of travellers who want customised home stay options,” said Vasupal.
The brand campaign will first go live on the online media on Friday. This will be followed by offline media including radio jingles, outdoor and print ads in 18 cities on October 15.
“Our new campaign, ‘Make Room for Something New’, tells potential hosts that they do not have to step outside their homes to experience something new.
“They can just open their doors and let the world into their homes and, more important, choose the profile of travellers they want to welcome into their homes,” said Vasupal.
Stayzilla has already opened up 7,500 home stay rooms nationwide over the past 40 days through group interactions with potential hosts in multiple cities.
It aims to cross 5 lakh rooms in three years, contributing 50 per cent of the company’s revenue. “We can easily achieve this target as we have been growing 4X for the last two years,” said Vasupal.
“In August, the company garnered $4 million in gross bookings, selling 7,000 room nights a day; up from under $1 million in gross bookings at 1,500 room nights a day in August 2014. In March 2016, we will cross $12 million in gross bookings, selling 20,000 room nights per day.”