Online vacation rentals company HomeAway has secured a record $160 million in debt and equity financing.

Online vacation rentals company HomeAway has secured a record $160 million in debt and equity financing.

Published: 13 Nov 2006

Online vacation rentals company HomeAway has secured a record $160 million in debt and equity financing.

This is to fund its continued expansion initiatives throughout the world—including the acquisition of the leading “rent-by-owner” vacation rental website in the US, VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner).

In a release, it was stated that this funding represents the largest financing of an Internet software and services company in the US in 2006, according to Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ.

Existing investors Austin Ventures and Redpoint Ventures and new investors American Capital (ACAS), Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Triedent Capital provided the financing. Since being founded in February 2005, HomeAway has raised more than $200 million in capital.

The financing will fund additional acquisitions of vacation rental websites to increase rental inventory, boost marketing efforts to grow traffic, and continue the development of technology that improves the experience of locating and renting homes online.

Brian Sharples, founder and chief executive officer of HomeAway, “The unprecedented number of people who own second homes in the U.S. and Europe means the supply of quality rental properties has never been stronger and that owners are now realizing the ease and great return on investment of marketing online. This financing enables HomeAway to grow its worldwide marketplace even more quickly.”

Along with its financing, HomeAway has also announced the acquisition of VRBO.com, HomeAway’s largest competitor, representing nearly 65,000 properties worldwide.

With the addition of VRBO.com, the HomeAway portfolio of vacation rental websites, which includes HomeAway.com, now comprises more than 130,000 properties in nearly 100 countries. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Together, HomeAway and VRBO now represent the best and largest online vacation rental sites in the world and will attract an estimated 100 million unique visitors in 2007,” stated the company.

HomeAway (as WVR Group) received $49 million in equity funding prior to the most recent investment round.

VRBO.com now joins the HomeAway portfolio of vacation rental websites: HomeAway.com, CyberRentals.com, GreatRentals.com, A1Vacations.com, TripHomes.com, Holiday-Rentals.co.uk in the United Kingdom and FeWo-direkt.de in Germany.

HomeAway sites enable second homeowners and rental managers to easily market their properties to a worldwide audience of travelers for an annual subscription fee.

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