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Shazam investors lead $1m funding round in Airbnb hospitality startup

Hostmaker, the Airbnb hospitality management startup, has closed a $1m (approx. £850k) funding round as it looks to capitalise on its 400% year-on-year growth.

The funding round in the London-based firm, which provides hotel-style services for Airbnb hosts, was led by Initial Capital, Shazam-backer DN Capital and early stage investment firm DSG Consumer Partners.

Since its launch in July 2014, the business has experienced rapid growth with 1000 hosts in UK, France, Spain and Italy already using the service and the startup now hopes to move into more European capitals following the new round of investment.

It was also named as one of Forbes’ five British businesses to watch for 2016 earlier in the summer.

Nakul Sharma, founder and Chief Executive Officer at Hostmaker said that early feedback on its services had been ‘very positive’ and that moves are already afoot for a wider international expansion.

He said: “Hostmaker is now making hosting easy for nearly a thousand hosts across four major European Airbnb destinations - London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona, and we now have additional cities in the pipeline.”

Providing professional hotel-style hospitality services to Airbnb hosts, including everything from laundry to linen rental, communications and design services, Hostmaker is part of a new generation of value-added startups, such as London-based competitor YourWelcome, which provide additional services on established platforms.

Alvaro Alvarez del Rio of Initial Capital described the value-added hospitality tech space as a major growth area with Hostmaker well positioned to stake a claim for larger market share.

He added: “In a rapidly growing segment of the hospitality technology sector, we believe Hostmaker’s approach of uncompromising customer service and its independence from external service providers will make it the go-to partner for hosts who want to benefit from short-term lets without all the hassle this process traditionally involves.”