EDITOR'S COMMENT
• On the rare occasion of interviewing someone younger than myself, I was thrilled to speak to Wander CEO John Andrew Entwistle on the latest episode of the STRz podcast about how his company is building the "travel experience of the future".
Entwistle is a hugely impressive individual who, by the age of 25, has already closed a Series A funding round and a $100 million debt facility, launched what he calls "the industry's first vacation home rental real estate investment trust" [called Atlas], and secured the backing of high-profile investors including basketball legend Kevin Durant.
His insights on a range of topics, from how Wander is targeting digital nomads and providing "Disney"-style amenities such as a Tesla in each garage to guest trends and the opportunities and challenges ahead for the vacation rental industry, make for fascinating listening and it will be interesting to follow his startup's progress over the coming years.
As expected, the wave of investment that we anticipated several weeks ago is materialising, with Canadian SaaS company Operto, Danish rental platform Landfolk and Polish operator Renters.pl all raising funding in the space. A week on from the SVB crisis, we should not be surprised that investors have been reticent about parting with cash amid the uncertain economic context, but with more rounds on the horizon, we can foresee more startups flexing their financial muscles and accelerating their international expansion ambitions.
• We've been delighted by the global response to this year's Shortyz Awards, with a record 390+ entries received across our 20 categories - a rise of more than 10 per cent on the number of submissions for last year's awards.
We now proceed to the judging period and the announcement of the 2023 Shortyz shortlists in April, ahead of the voting period and the big awards night on Wednesday 26 April at the ArcelorMittal Orbit in London. More information will be shared in due course and you can already book your tickets to "The Oscars of the short-term rental industry" at this link.
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