UK-based luxury accommodation rental service Plum Guide has secured £14m ($18.5m) in a funding round featuring Hearst Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of media group Hearst, TechCrunch has reported.
Venture capital firm Talis Capital led the round, which included Latitude and VC firm Octopus Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Plum Guide operates an online rental marketplace concentrating on high-end vacation rental properties, holiday homes, short-term lets and Airbnb listings in the cities of London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris and Rome.
The company claims to provide access to the “top 1% of homes in the world” and vets each property based on criteria such as local amenities and strength of wifi connection. Proceeds from the round will be used to expand its service to 12 new cities this year.
Octopus Ventures led Plum Guide’s $7.7m series A round in January 2018, investing alongside growth fund BGF Ventures, several private investors and LocalGlobe, the VC firm that had led a seed round of undisclosed size for the company in 2016.