Led · Equity · Aug 2024

Vacasa is a technology-focused vacation rental management company. It develops a proprietary platform used to manage guests' daily needs, oversee property maintenance, and handle distribution. The platform is presented as central to the company's daily operations for properties. The company recently received a $30 million strategic investment. That investment was made by Davidson Kempner Capital Management and reported by DoNews on August 13, 2024. The article did not disclose additional financial metrics or operational details. Vacasa is North America’s largest vacation rental management platform based in Portland, Ore., operating 26,000+ professionally managed homes and offering 24/7 customer care. The company runs a technology platform that adjusts rates in real time to maximize homeowner revenue. Vacasa recently launched Vacasa Premium Clean, a program that meets or exceeds published CDC recommendations and follows Vacation Rental Management Association SafeHome guidance. Like many travel companies, Vacasa experienced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic but is showing signs of recovery: guest reservations in May were six times those in April, serviced cities rose from 357 to 723 U.S. cities, and the booking window returned to about 40 days. Founded in 2009, Vacasa says it aims to capture shifting consumer demand toward professionally managed vacation rentals and to provide increased protection and support to the communities it serves. Vacasa operates an integrated technology and services platform that provides end-to-end vacation rental property management solutions to homeowners. Led by founder and CEO Eric Breon, the company manages more than 23,000 vacation homes and has hosted over 20 million guest nights since its founding in 2009. Vacasa employs more than 5,000 people and combines software with operational services to run and grow rental properties. The company intends to use newly raised capital to further enhance its technology platform and accelerate expansion into new markets. It also plans to grow new offerings, including its Real Estate division. Vacasa is a vacation rental management company that leverages technology to maximize revenue for homeowners and provide guest services across a growing portfolio. The company manages about 10,600 vacation rental properties in 23 U.S. states and 16 countries across Europe, South and Central America, and Africa. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Vacasa has grown to more than 2,500 employees. Management reports consistent 60% year‑over‑year growth and highlights improvements in unit economics, customer retention, homeowner and guest satisfaction. Recent product and strategic initiatives include the July launch of Vacasa Real Estate and the strategic purchase of assets from Oasis Collections. Leadership says the company plans continued domestic and international expansion, new programs, and further investment in its technology platform. Vacasa is a full-service vacation rental management company offering homeowners end-to-end property management and aiming to deliver consistent, world-class experiences to guests. The company leverages an in-house technology platform that optimizes every step of the vacation rental process for homeowners and guests. Founded in 2009 and based in Portland, Oregon, Vacasa manages a portfolio of more than 6,000 vacation homes across 17 U.S. states, Europe, Central and South America, and South Africa. The company has grown to over 1,600 employees and says it almost tripled its revenue and unit count in the year and a half since Level Equity invested. With the new capital, Vacasa plans to expand into new destinations, continue development of its core technology, and hire 100+ full-time roles including software engineers, business development, marketing, and field staff. Vacasa’s stated goal is to become the largest U.S. vacation rental management company.

Participated · Debt Financing · Aug 2024

Stori is a Mexico-based consumer finance startup that provides a multi-product app including credit cards and deposit accounts to serve underserved middle‑mass customers. The company launched its first credit card in 2020 and reports a 99% approval rate for that product. Following regulatory approval of its Sofipo license in October 2023, Stori introduced Stori Cuenta+, a deposit account offering a market-leading yield. The company says it has 3 million loyal users and plans to use new capital to introduce and scale additional products across Mexico and Latin America. Stori emphasizes financial inclusion, user education, and a user-friendly experience as core parts of its product strategy. The recent hiring of Diego Cabrera Canay as CFO is intended to strengthen the executive team for the next phase of rapid scaling. Stori is a Mexico-based fintech that issues paperless, mobile-first credit cards aimed at underserved and credit-invisible consumers. The company launched its credit card product in January 2020 and has grown to more than 1.4 million customers in Mexico (over 3x year‑over‑year). Stori earns revenue from interest and interchange fees and reported roughly 20x revenue growth in 2021 (company did not disclose absolute figures). The team includes former Capital One and payments/finance executives and now exceeds 200 professional employees plus over 400 support and service staff, up from 70 professionals a year earlier. Stori says it plans to use new capital for hiring, product expansion and geographic expansion across Spanish‑speaking Latin America, with an ultimate goal of serving 100 million underserved customers in the region. Stori is a credit-card-led digital financial services company focused on expanding access to credit cards for mass-middle and emerging-middle income populations. The company has become a top issuer of new credit cards in Mexico; more than 2 million Mexicans have applied for a Stori card and applications have grown more than tenfold in the past twelve months. Stori plans to invest the $200M raised in Mexico over the next year to triple in size and broaden its product suite. The company has a global team with offices in Washington DC, Mexico and Asia and intends to expand its team while doubling down on training, development and sustainable infrastructure. Stori was co-founded by Bin Chen and Marlene Garayzar and, eight months after its February 2021 Series B, achieved its recent growth milestones. Stori provides credit cards via a 100% mobile app-based experience aimed at Mexico’s rising middle-income and underserved populations. The company launched its credit card product in January 2020 and has had more than 1 million customers apply for a card. In January 2021 its monthly new customer growth was 14× that of January 2020 and six times the company’s 2020 monthly average. Stori spent its first two years building its infrastructure and platform and now has about 80 employees across offices in Mexico, the U.S., and China, up from 40 a year earlier. The company plans to use new capital to grow its customer base, boost headcount, and invest in product design, technology infrastructure, and underwriting. Stori aims to become a leading digital bank and credit-card issuer for underserved customers in the region. Stori is a Mexico-based digital bank that provides financial services to Mexican consumers using technology. Co-founded by Marlene Garayzar and Manuel Medina, the company has launched a credit card with compelling digital features in Mexico. In a Series A2 round the company raised $10M, co-led by Bertelsmann Investments and Source Code Capital, with participation from Vision Plus Capital. The round brought Stori's total funding to date to more than $17M. Stori intends to use the funds to strengthen its big data and AI platform and to grow its talent base.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2024

Travelport provides a marketplace, Travelport+, that connects buyers and sellers of travel and simplifies how brands connect, upgrades how travel is sold, and enables modern digital retailing. The company operates in more than 165 countries and is led by CEO Greg Webb. Travelport’s platform supports a wide range of carrier NDC offerings and includes a Content Curation Layer — an AI/ML-powered search engine that normalizes and personalizes sources of travel content. The company intends to use recent financing to continue investing in its technology platforms and customer offerings. Its stated product roadmap includes accelerating new developments in Travelport+, expanding NDC support, and further developing the Content Curation Layer. Travelport is a Langley, UK-based technology company that powers bookings for hundreds of thousands of travel suppliers worldwide. Its next-generation marketplace, Travelport+, connects buyers and sellers and aims to simplify how brands connect, upgrade how travel is sold, and enable modern digital retailing. The company operates in more than 165 countries around the world. Led by CEO Greg Webb, Travelport reported a strong first-quarter performance and best-in-class tech achievements. It recently acquired Deem, a corporate travel management platform, and intends to use new capital to continue executing its growth strategy.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2023

Zopa is a UK savings-and-lending bank focused on retail deposits and consumer lending, and it has been preparing to launch a Bank Account/current account product. The bank said the latest capital raise strengthens its balance sheet and positions it for the Bank Account launch. It raised additional capital ahead of its current account offering six months ago and described this new raise as non-dilutive. Zopa listed its first-ever bond on the London Stock Exchange as Additional Tier 1 capital to help meet regulatory capital requirements. The company reported a doubling of pre-tax profits to £31.5m in 2024. Management also said an IPO is not a priority given public market uncertainty. Zopa is a UK savings and lending digital bank with a UK banking licence that offers personal loans, credit cards, point-of-sale retail finance, car finance, savings accounts, and financial health tools. It reports about 1.3m customers and holds £5m in deposits. Zopa recorded its first full year of profitability in 2023, making a pre-tax profit of £15.8m for the year ending 2023, and says it expects to double profits in 2024. The company has raised a total of £768m to date, according to Crunchbase, including two £75m fundraising rounds in 2023. Most recently it raised over €80m (£66m) in an equity round led by AP Moller Holding with significant participation from existing investors including Silverstripe; SoftBank is also a known shareholder. Zopa did not disclose a valuation, though press coverage indicated the new funding keeps it above $1bn unicorn status. The funding is intended to support the launch of a current account proposition next year and development of a GenAI proposition. Zopa is a UK neobank that offers loans, savings and deposits, a BNPL product and ISAs to retail customers and now serves 1 million customers. The company launched BNPL and a long-term savings ISA this year and plans to launch two more products next year. It says it will continue building products alongside its lending and deposit businesses and is also eyeing acquisitions. Zopa has no near-term plans to expand outside the U.K., citing ample opportunity domestically. Financially, Zopa is EBITDA positive, on track to be profitable for the full year for the first time, and projects an annualized run rate of £250 million this year. The firm has raised capital previously and has attracted large strategic investors as it prepares for a future IPO when markets improve. Zopa provides consumer lending, credit cards and savings accounts and currently serves roughly 850,000 customers across its products. The company reports £3 billion in deposits in its savings business, £2 billion in its loans business, £8 billion in loans approved overall, and about 400,000 credit cards in circulation. Revenue has doubled year-over-year and Zopa says it is on track to be profitable for the full year 2023, the first time since it was founded 17 years ago. The firm plans to use new funding to build out additional financial products, acquire assets, and bring on more customers. Management also intends to explore business-targeted products and expand further into payments alongside its existing credit, loan and savings offerings. Zopa notes market growth for loans has slowed to near pre-pandemic levels, but says customer migration to digital services continues to drive volume growth for the company. Zopa operates a savings-focused neobank and a peer-to-peer lending platform, serving roughly 500,000 users in the U.K. The company originated P2P lending and has processed about £6 billion in loans to date. It launched plans to become a bank in 2018 and completed its banking launch last year, building most products in-house rather than via third-party APIs. Zopa is on a run rate of £85 million (~$116 million) and expects that to double to £170 million (~$233 million) by 2022. Management says the business is on track to reach profitability by the end of the year. The company plans to use new funding to expand savings products, develop tools to help consumers pay down credit cards, target solopreneurs with additional products, and pursue partnerships with other fintechs and neobanks.

Participated · Series E · Mar 2022

Best Egg operates an online lending platform focused on unsecured personal loans aimed at helping consumers consolidate revolving debt or finance significant life events. In the past decade, the company has originated more than $30 billion in personal loans, positioning it as a major player in consumer fintech. Beyond lending, Best Egg offers a suite of budgeting tools and educational resources designed to increase customers’ financial confidence. The business generates revenue by originating and servicing loans that are subsequently purchased by institutional investors. A newly secured $500 million purchase facility expands its capacity to fund additional personal loans without diluting equity. The arrangement allows Best Egg to continue scaling originations while shifting credit risk to capital-markets partners. Management views the facility as critical to serving more borrowers in the current economic climate and deepening relationships with institutional buyers.