{"id":14471,"date":"2019-03-18T22:37:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T22:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/misterbb-hits-the-equity-crowdfunding-trail-to-expand-into-hotels.html"},"modified":"2019-03-18T22:37:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T22:37:44","slug":"misterbb-hits-the-equity-crowdfunding-trail-to-expand-into-hotels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/misterbb-hits-the-equity-crowdfunding-trail-to-expand-into-hotels.html","title":{"rendered":"misterb&b hits the equity crowdfunding trail to expand into hotels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homosexuality is illegal in a third of the planet, and in eight countries, it is punishable by death. In the febrile atmosphere of today\u2019s politics, hate crime incidents in the US increased by 17% between 2016 to 2017, according<\/a> to the FBI.<\/p>\n

Over 20 of those incidents were crimes against an individual\u2019s sexual-orientation \u2014 the largest increase since 9\/11. Similar hate crime statistics have increased in the UK and several other western countries.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange and saddening to think that men, women, and gender non-conforming people who \u201ctravel while gay\u201d are now in a more dangerous \u2013 and potentially life-threatening \u2013 situation around the world, despite us being well into the 21st Century.<\/p>\n

The key to the situation is knowing whether the place you\u2019re staying at will be welcoming or not. There are many incidents where, at hotels, gay travelers have been rejected or forced to book separate rooms, and had to fall back on third-party, unverified, user-generated reviews.<\/p>\n

Now, misterbb<\/a>, the short-term rental marketplace aimed at the Gay community, has a simple solution. Customers can book an entire home or rent a private room at the home of a gay or gay-friendly host, and with many located in gay-friendly neighborhoods. The startup competes with more home-spun sites like \u201cGay Home Stays<\/a>\u201c, however, misterbb has already raised substantial amounts in VC.<\/p>\n

The startup graduated from the 500 Startups accelerator and has raised US$13.5M from institutional investors like Project A and Ventech, and from angels like Joel Simkhai (founder of Grindr, which sold for $300M USD). The marketplace now has 310,000 hosts in over 135 countries, and claims to have 30% revenue growth YoY; with 60% of the business done organically by repeat customers.<\/p>\n

misterbb has now raised over half a million dollars inside a week via Wefunder<\/a> to fund its expansion. This will allow guests, hosts, and the public to invest in the company\u2019s push to launch its services into the hotel sector.<\/p>\n

Investors are buying into a lucrative market. The niche of global gay tourism is estimated to be a $100Bn market, while gay people travel twice as much as other travelers. Its fund-raising may also benefit from the influx of new tech millionaires being created by the upcoming IPOs of Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and Airbnb.<\/p>\n

CEO and founder Matthieu Jost says he wants to \u201cbuild equality into the sharing economy and give back to a community that\u2019s been historically economically marginalized,\u201d providing its community \u201cwith the power of part ownership of the company\u201d.<\/p>\n

The idea for starting misterbb was first conceived in 2013 after he had a negative experience while traveling with his partner and didn\u2019t feel welcome by his host. \u201cSix years ago, my partner and I traveled to and booked a room in Barcelona through a third party rental website,\u201d he told me via email.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, when we arrived there, we were faced with a host who was very much homophobic and asked me if we were seriously going to share a bedroom. This was a very sad thing to have to face. Straight, hetero folks never have to worry about something so humiliating as this while on a lovely vacation; they will never have to think about it or prepare for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I returned home I felt dejected, but I felt I had do something to solve this horrific problem \u2013 yet common fear \u2013 that our community faces. I don\u2019t want my community to be afraid of traveling anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reaching out to the most passionate people in the community: our hosts and our guests, as well as LGBTQ allies,\u201d said Jost. \u201cWe want to provide the opportunity to financially benefit from our successes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The crowdfunding is for a new selection of gay-friendly and gay-welcoming hotels that have been selected by the company\u2019s editorial team for their quality, exclusive, and verified reviews from LGBTQ travelers. The idea is that travelers will also be able to connect with each other to explore the city together \u2013 especially because there\u2019s safety in numbers.<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/mi--_u1Ywx0\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Homosexuality is illegal in a third of the planet, and in eight countries, it is punishable by death. In the febrile atmosphere of today\u2019s politics, hate crime incidents in the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-14471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t