Love Home Swap closes second MMC Ventures-led fundraising round of 2012

MMC Ventures has backed Love Home Swap for the second time in 2012 by investing £800,000.

Love Home Swap, which allows members to swap homes with fellow users from 100 countries, has now raised £1.65 million during 2012 after closing its second deal of the year.

MMC Ventures has again taken the lead in the round, having provided £850,000 in January, and injected £800,000 into the international holiday home exchange website founded by Debbie Wosskow in 2011.

The business derives its revenues through membership subscriptions, with premium signups gaining access to a ‘dedicated travel team’, personal concierge and travel guides.

As well as founding Love Home Swap, Wosskow co-founded internet protocol television business TripleSEE, and founded creative industry advisory business Maidthorn Partners.

In conjunction with the investment transaction, David Kelly, formerly of roles at Amazon, Lastminute and eBay, has joined as chairman. Joining Kelly at Love Home Swap is Sean Cornwell, who has previously been at Google and eHarmony, as a non-executive director.

Love Home Swap says that according to statistics, more than twice as many people planned a home swap in 2012 over 2011, a rise from 1.6 million to 3.2 million in the UK alone.

Wosskow, CEO of London-based Love Home Swap, says that it is ‘great’ that MMC Ventures is continuing to support the business.

She adds, ‘As a UK-based business with global ambition and a global footprint, this latest round of funding enables us to continue to expand and offer our members the best range of stylish homes in locations across the world.’

Rory Stirling, investment director at MMC Ventures, comments, ‘The business has experienced nearly 10x growth since we first met the team a year ago and we continue to be really impressed with the speed of execution.

‘MMC focus on backing British businesses that can succeed on a global scale – we have re-invested in Love Home Swap to continue building a best in class product and we think there is a significant global opportunity.’

Hunter Ruthven

Hunter Ruthven

Hunter was the Editor for GrowthBusiness.co.uk from 2012 to 2014, before moving on to Caspian Media Ltd to be Editor of Real Business.

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