AvantStay, a premier hospitality platform for the STR (short-term rental) industry, recently announced closing a $500 million PropCo funding round led by Saluda Grade, according to a press release.
The company says the investment from Saluda Grade will allow it to set new precedent for best practices with local communities and their local governments, as well as enable investors, operators and regulators to ensure successful short-term rental partnerships in the long term.
AvantStay also says it will use the funding to deepen its portfolio and expand into new markets across the U.S, with a goal of managing the largest luxury home portfolio in the country. Saluda will own homes purchased with the fund, with AvantStay acting as property manager, according to Skift.
“AvantStay continues to break barriers for the STR industry. With this new capital and partnership with Saluda Grade, we will pioneer and institutionalize a new asset class that will inevitably pave the path for travelers to have a better experience and for investors to generate attractive returns,” stated Sean Breuner, CEO and Founder of AvantStay.
The company currently owns over 1,000 vacation rental homes in more than 100 cities in the U.S. and Cabo San Lucas, and supports partnerships with a range of companies including GoPuff, Soothe and Public Goods. In addition, it was recently ranked the second fastest growing hospitality company on the Inc. 5000 list.
This funding follows AvantStay’s recent $160 million fundraise in late 2021, which also included participation from Saluda Grade, a firm which aims to identify alternative lending sectors in need of institutional capital.
Saluda Grade has secured twelve securitizations worth over $2 billion in the past year, consisting of single and multifamily nontraditional debt securitizations. This investment will be the firm’s first investment in the STR sector.
“We believe AvantStay’s dynamic and fast-growing customer base makes them the perfect partner for our firm to finally enter the burgeoning STR space,” said Ryan Craft, Founder & CEO of Saluda Grade.
“We were attracted to their higher yielding product and differentiated channels of supply, and we are confident they will continue to lead the industry with their robust offering of hospitality, tech, design and real estate as an all-in-one package,” he said.
In other recent proptech news, Nomad raised $20 million to promote its long-term rental, guaranteed rent service offering. Sundae also unveiled a new lending service to help property investors finance on its marketplace.