France: Rennes-based short-term rental property management agency Cocoonr, which specialises in renting out apartments, houses, villas and chalets across France, has raised €1 million in funding, through a partnership with crowdfunding portal GwenneG, Georges Sampeur, co-CEO at B&B Hôtels GmbH, and a number of unnamed private investors.
It is the company’s third significant raise since launching in 2015, having closed two tranches of funding in 2017 and 2018, which amounted to €1.3 million, according to a press release. The funding will now go towards developing its Book&Pay tools to increase reservations for property managers and accelerating its operational deployment in new markets.
Over the past five years, Cocoonr has welcomed more than 70,000 guests to book short-term breaks through its platform, which now features 700 onboarded properties. The company has also grown rapidly since its launch, setting up eight agencies across France, in Rennes, Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Saint-Malo, and Nantes, and will open up new offices in the Gulf of Morbihan [Brittany] and Arcachon Bay [Aquitaine] later this year.
Despite business and leisure travel taking a severe hit in 2020 due to government-enforced lockdowns triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, Cocoonr said 2020 was a record year for the company. With turnover up 25 per cent on the previous year, the business added that it had kept all of its team members on its books in spite of the bookings plunge.
Having recently been named in the World’s Top 50 Short Term Property Managers list by channel manager Rentals United, Cocoonr is aiming to increase the number of properties in its portfolio to more than 1,000 units by the end of the year.
The company said: “In a context like ours, we have to be satisfied with this result. The most important thing is the rebound in travel for which we are preparing.
“Property owners must be prepared for this crisis. Instead of seeing these properties disappear while they have interesting assets, we are taking care of them as well and guiding the owners themselves towards our solutions, Cocoonr and Book&Pay.”
GwenneG founder and CEO, Karim Essemiani, said: “GwenneG is very proud t0 once again participate in Cocoonr’s €1 million funding round in order to finance its growth.”
Among the new investors in Cocoonr is Sampeur, who has led the B&B Hôtels group for the past 15 yea
Sampeur said: “I was seduced by the relevance of the model and the overall offering proposed by Cocoonr and Book&Pay. I will be delighted to contribute my vision and experience to the founders.”
To achieve its objectives, the company will also recruit around 15 new members for its team this year and move ahead with developing its property management system, Cocoonr Manager.
