Vietnamese startup Luxstay completed a bridge round of funding, with two Korean investors pitching in

Luxstay, Vietnam-based startup that focusses on premium travel accommodations, has just completed their bridge round of funding with the participation of two new investors from Korea: GS Home Shopping (GS Shop) and Bon Angels. This brought the total of the deal to US$4.5 million, which the company claimed to be a substantial amount of early-stage investment for a Vietnamese tech startup.

Luxstay was founded in 2017 by Steven Nguyen, offering a home-sharing platform that targets the Southeast Asia market and operating in Vietnam.

According to statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, Vietnam served about 80 million domestic and 15.6 million foreign tourists in 2018 alone. Total spending on tourism in 2018 amounted to US$25 billion, of which the accommodation sector accounted for 28 per cent, or equivalent to about US$7 billion.

With the statistics showing growth, the Vietnamese government strongly encourages the tourism sector to become a key economic sector in the next 5 years with government support and promotion policies. Backed by the promising number of supply from the real estate market, apartments and villa projects have been launched in Vietnam.

While the market of home-sharing is still fairly new in Vietnam, the revenue from these short-term rental activities in 2018 amounts to over US$100 million, as shown in Statista reports.

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Luxstay’s focus on premium products and domestic tourists, the company claimed, is what sets it apart. In order to help business partners and homeowners save time and effort, Luxstay has dedicated team members to support them in operating and managing real estate assets.

GS Home Shopping, one of the new investors, is Korea’s multimedia retailer that dominates TV home shopping. It has a corporate Venture Capital arm that invests through fund as well as direct investments. The other investor is BonAngels, who’s known as venture capital fund that focusses on investing in early-stage companies startups in Korea such as Woowa Brothers, Daily Hotels, and My Real Trip.

In the past, Luxstay had records of names like CyberAgent Venture (Japan), Genesia Ventures (Japan), ESP Capital (Singapore), Founders Capital (Singapore), and Nextrans (Korea) among its investors.
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