China-based holiday home rental marketplace Tujia.com has secured $300m in a funding round co-led by online travel agency Ctrip and investment fund All-Stars Investment, Bloomberg reported today.
Investment bank China Renaissance contributed to the round, through its Huaxing Growth Capital Fund, as did investment firms Glade Brook Capital and G Street Capital. The deal valued Tujia at more than $1.5bn.
Founded in 2011, Tujia operates an online platform that enables users to rent out their homes to each other for short-term stays.
The company currently lists more than 650,000 properties globally, but aims to boost that figure with a focus on Japan, where it aims to increase its listings from 10,000 listings to 100,000 by 2019.
The cash will fund Tujia’s expansion efforts and help it compete with its US-based rival Airbnb, which announced in August 2017 that it intends to quadruple its headcount in China. Airbnb committed in March 2017 to doubling its investment in the Chinese market, and rebranded locally to Aibiying.
Tujia has now raised approximately $764m in total, having previously secured $300m at a $1bn valuation, in a 2015 series D round led by All-Stars, with participation from Ctrip, serviced apartment manager Ascott and unnamed existing investors.
Tujia received $100m in series C capital from undisclosed backers in 2014, after raising a total of $64m in series A and B funding in 2012 and 2013, respectively, though the company has not revealed the rounds’ individual sizes.
The series B funding was provided by Ctrip and holiday home rental marketplace HomeAway alongside Qiming Venture Partners, Lightspeed China Partners, GGV Capital, CDH Ventures and CBC Capital, after Ctrip, HomeAway, Lightspeed and CDH had supplied the series A cash.