Peru: Peruvian apartment rental startup Wynwood House has closed a $7 million seed round in equity and debt to fund its expansion further into and beyond Latin America.
The investment was led by Chilean firm FEN Ventures and Innogen Venture Capital Ventures, based in El Salvador.
Founded in late 2019, Wynwood House describes itself as a hybrid between “the comfort of travelling to a friend’s house and a five-star hotel”, and it now manages more than 850 leased units under its brand in Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Panama.
Claiming to have quadrupled its growth over the last year, the startup is aiming to use the funding to expand to over 2,500 units in 2023, including launching in Chile [Santiago] and Spain [Madrid], and potentially in the United States in Miami.
Offering both short- and long-term lodging, Wynwood House has also launched two new lines of business:
• Casa Wynwood – a mix between a boutique hotel and clubhouse, with two units already being managed in Mexico City and Lima that are geared towards longer-term stays.
• Wynwood Real Estate – through which the startup advises real estate investors on where to buy an apartment or space that will be furnished and operated by Wynwood.
Ignacio Masias, co-founder and CEO of Wynwood House, told Forbes Peru: “We help real estate investors monetise their properties. We take care of everything: from the design of the apartments, the furnishing, all the way to the cleaning and the costumer experience.
“The owner of the apartment can get a return on average between 20 and 30 per cent higher than what he would get in the traditional rental market, without having to take care of the operation,” he added.
Despite a stunted tourism recovery across markets in Latin America since the pandemic, Wynwood House says that it has been able to maintain an average occupancy of 80 per cent over the last year and a half in the four countries in which it operates, and Masias expects the Peruvian, Mexican and Colombian markets to recover quickest in 2023.
