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Rental voids service Lavanda raises £4m from UK venture capital firm

Service enables agents to fill properties with Airbnb guests between rentals and has previously been backed by former Rightmove and Purplebricks bosses.

Nigel Lewis

lavanda

A proptech platform that enables landlords and estate agents to fill voids with Airbnb and Booking.com guests has raised £4 million from a UK investment fund to accelerate its growth both here and overseas.

Lavanda’s service is being piloted by Hunters in Manchester but is also available in London and Liverpool but has ambitions to launch in the US and Middle East.

The company describes itself as a ‘super-short’ rentals service that helps estate agents ‘stand out from the crowd and win more instructions’ by generating income from property that would otherwise be standing vacant.

The additional funding from Henley Ventures follows a £1.5 million investment in 2017 by its Chairman and Rightmove founder Harry Hill together with Purplebricks co-founder Kenny Bruce and former Tesco boss Terry Leahy.

Major player

At the time Bruce said Lavanda had “the potential to develop into a major player within the residential market”.

The company started out as an on-demand laundry service for hotels but co-founder Guy Westlake soon realised much of the demand for the service came from Airbnb and Booking.com landlords and agents.

lavanda“Imagine a world where you rent an apartment, your home, in perpetuity; it is your home whenever you need it, but you have the additional flexibility of being able to sublet it securely and effortlessly whenever you wish to spend time elsewhere – be it for a weekend, or for three months plus,” says Westlake (left).

Lavanda offers three services including to homeowners looking to generate income form their homes, its ‘agent’ service to help fill voids and a direct service for property investors and landlords.

September 20, 2019

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