Saudi's Gathern raises $6 million Series A to grow its P2P vacation rental marketplace

Published 23 May,2021 via MENAbytes - Riyadh-based peer-to-peer vacation rental marketplace Gathern has raised $6 million in a Series A round led by Saudi’s leading VC STV, it announced in a statement today.

The existing investors including Vision Ventures, 500 Startups, Naef Sultan AlAthel, and ARG Limited also participated in the round.

According to our data, it is the largest financing round for a woman-led startup in Saudi. Gathern had previously raised an undisclosed amount of money in a seed round in 2018.

Founded in 2016 by Latifa Altamimi and Faisal Alanazi, Gathern had started as a chalet booking platform, enabling users to book chalets across Saudi.

It kept expanding into other types of properties and evolved into a peer-to-peer vacation rental marketplace with a presence in over 100 cities of the Kingdom including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Abha, Al-Baha, Taif, Al-Ula, and Umluj.

In addition to chalets, it can be used to book rooms, apartments, villas, resorts, camps, farms, and yachts for short stays.

In a statement, the Saudi startup said that it has capacity to host 1.2 million guests per month, adding that its top hosts earn over $16,000 (SAR 60,000) every month.

What makes Gathern different from a host of similar local and international platforms operating in Saudi is that its licensed by Saudi Minsitry of Tourism as a private vacation rentals marketplace.

Gathern had received this license by the Saudi ministiry in July last year. A property owner in the Kingdom is normally required to obtain individual permit if they want to rent out their property for short term rentals but using Gathern, they can list their property and host guests without it.

The Middle Eastern country is investing billions of dollars in different tourism initiatives as part of its efforts to to diversify its revenue sources and reduce the depdendence on oil exports.

According to the statement by Gathern, it aims to welcome 100 million international and domestic visitors by 2030, which (if acheived) could turn in into one of the top five tourist destinations globally.

The country already receives millions of visitors every year for Hajj and Umrah and with the tourist visa that it introduced recently, the number of international vistiors is expected to increase significantly, added the statement.

Covid-19 has put the international tourim on pause for now in this part of the world but once the recovery starts, Gathern could benefit greatly from the government’s focus on this sector.

Latifa Altamimi, Co-founder and CEO at Gathern, in a statement, said, “We are happy to have STV, as well as existing investors Vision Ventures and 500 Startups, on board in our journey as we continue to grow our proposition across the country. Saudi Arabia has a renewed vision for its tourism sector, with both domestic and international tourism seeing significant support.”

“With Gathern, we look to offer a different experience from the traditional travel experience, by providing unique tourist residences from actual residents. This allows anyone to explore the real culture and cities in Saudi Arabia. If you become a host on our platform, you simply list your villa, apartment, farm, caravan, room, chalet, camp, or yacht, which allows you to earn significant additional income,” she added.

Ahmad Alshammari, a Partner at STV, said, “We are incredibly excited to partner with Gathern – it is our first investment in the travel space, and the largest ever investment in a female-led Saudi startup. We believe that Latifa and the Gathern team have the right engine to tackle this fast-growing market with a fresh approach. They have proven themselves to be incredibly nimble and resilient during COVID-19, where they grew significantly despite the global challenges. We are excited to see what the future holds.”

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