| 9flats.com | |
| Type: | Privately held company |
| Foundation: | , Launch: |
| Location: | Singapore[1] |
| Owner: | eVentures, Redpoint, T-Ventures, Founders |
| Founder: | Stephan Uhrenbacher Roman Bach |
| Key People: | Stephan Uhrenbacher, Chairman |
| Industry: | Lodging |
9flats is an online marketplace enabling people to lease or rent short-term lodging. The company does not own any lodging; it is merely a broker and receives commissions from both guests and hosts in conjunction with every booking.[2]
The site competes with Airbnb.[3]
It has over 50,000 members and 30,000 hosts in 104 countries.[4]
9flats was launched by German internet entrepreneur Stephan Uhrenbacher – founder of Qype, and former head of northern European operations for lastminute.com.
The founders secured funding from venture capital fund E.ventures (CityDeal/Groupon) and launched 9flats.com in February 2011 with an inventory of 5,000 places.[5]
In May 2011, 9flats secured another round of investment from venture capital funds Redpoint Ventures (HomeAway), ProFounder (ex-lastminute.com) and Greycroft Partners, bringing the total funding to US$10 million.[6] [7] [8]
In late 2011, 9flats became the first well-known European or North American company in the social travel space to open an Asian office in Singapore, led by VP of Asia Ng Wei Leen, establishing a presence ahead of global competitors like Airbnb.[9] [10]
In January 2012, 9flats completed a round of funding led by T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom AG. This round included Redpoint Ventures and E-Venture Capital Partners (Hamburg).[11]
In August 2012, 9flats acquired Toronto-based competitor, extending its service to North America and growing its property base to 100.000 apartments.[12] [13] [14]
In August 2012, Wired ranked the company 6th on its list of hottest startups in Berlin.[15]
In March 2013, 9flats introduced bitcoin as payment method.[16] [17]
In February 2014, Roman Bach was named CEO; he vacated that post in April 2016. Uhrenbacher moved to the advisory board.[18]
In 2014, 9flats announced that it is the first profitable player in the social travel industry.[18]
In November 2014, 9flats made prepayment optional and allowed user to pay with cash.[19]
In October 2016, 9flats acquired Wimdu.[20] [21]
In December 2016, 9flats sold Wimdu to the Novasol brand of Wyndham Destinations.[22]