Dublin-headquartered campsite booking platform Campsited is in the process of raising €3 million from investors.
As reported by The Irish Times, Campsited was founded by Finán O'Donoghue in 2015, employs 14 people and allows people to book sites at over 2,000 campsites across Belgium, France, Italy and Spain.
Strongest Market
France is Campsited's strongest market, and rapid growth there in 2020 helped to increase the company's revenue fivefold.
The Irish Times quotes O'Donoghue as saying, "We had a big surge in bookings in France due to domestic bookings, and I'd be highly confident we can do even better this year."
New Service And Website Plans
Campsited is also planning to launch RV and campervan rental options on its platform soon as well as German, Italian and Spanish language versions of its website.
O'Donoghue said, "We believe we can achieve all our growth objectives for the year by just focusing on the French market, but as part of a broader pandemic mitigation strategy, we’re also localising the site into more languages in a move to drive demand elsewhere."
Funds
Campsited previously raised €2.9 million from backers that include Enterprise Ireland and Motley Fool Ventures, which is an early-stage fund linked to investment advice group the Motley Fool, and O'Donoghue said that the company has already secured €600,000 from backers as part of its latest funding round, and has seen strong interest from investors.
O'Donoghue added, "Between the fourth quarter of 2020 and now, an estimated $200 million has been invested in outdoor and camping-related consumer products and services, so it is an area that is of huge interest to investors right now."
© 2021 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
