HomeAway- Another Investment by Google Ventures
After doing a series of recent investments, Google Ventures has stepped into vacation rentals by investing in HomeAway, a well known name in vacation rentals.The company has already raised funds through venture capital and now when it needed more money, Google purchased shares from its existing shareholders.
HomeAway is a pioneer name in vacation rentals and has purchased 14 small rental sites to expanding its service network. Some of the popular sites it purchased include VacationRentals.com and VRBO.
“Google is a product and engineering-centric company that is growing up and becoming more of a business,” said Brian Sharples, Founder and Chief Executive of HomeAway. “HomeAway came from more of a business, deal-making culture and now we’re trying to move the company to more of an engineering and product culture.”
HomeAway, based in Austin, Tex., wants to improve its Web site and make it easier to rent vacation houses, and expand beyond Europe, the United States and South America to Asia and Australia, he said.
Google has already made several investments into the travel industry, currently fighting for its ITA acquisition. The amount of money invested in HomAway has not been disclosed yet, but it is believed to be a considerable part of Google Venture’s annual investment budget f $100 million.
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