03.06.2021
Frankfurt am Main – As part of a share deal, the founders and shareholders of the Berlin start-up Mapify have sold their company to the travel search engine HomeToGo. They were advised by the start-up team of Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft. The law firm had advised Mapify on all legal issues in the past, including on several financing rounds.
Earlier this year, HomeToGo launched its first efforts to create a community with a content-driven travel planning and booking experience, something that had previously only been seen on social media platforms like Instagram. This vision will now be realised together with Mapify: Mapify's founding team will assist HomeToGo in the future as product and community advisors in pursuing HomeToGo's product strategy and increasing HomeToGo's reach on social platforms.
About Mapify:
Founded in 2016 by Patrick Häde, Magnus Langanke, David Pflugpeil, Tobias Schnorpfeil and Sebastian Häde, the company made a name for itself as "Instagram for travellers". The Mapify app helped users plan their trips. By means of photo suggestions, interesting holiday locations could be saved, and initial booking steps carried out via interfaces to Airbnb and the flight portal Skyscanner. Apple was one of the first companies to be won over by the Berlin-based start-up Mapify: at the end of 2017, the iPhone company placed the app in its App Store.
Since then, the Mapify founders have gained a six-figure user base and notable investors: the Mapify community comprises more than a quarter of a million travellers providing immersive travel content in over 190 countries. In addition to Onefootball CEO Lucas von Cranach and Dubsmash founder Roland Grenke, former Gobutler founder Navid Hadzaad, for example, took an early stake in the Berlin-based company. In addition, the venture capital funds Lakestar and Atlantic Labs provided several million euros to the successful start-up in a financing round. Most recently, Mapify also offered its own travel packages through direct sales.
About HomeToGo:
HomeToGo GmbH, based in Berlin, is backed by investors including Global Founders Capital, Rocket Internet, Insight Venture Partners, Acton Capital Partners and DN Capital.
HomeToGo (www.hometogo.de) offers the world's largest selection of holiday accommodation. On the web, mobile and via app, HomeToGo lists several million offers from several thousand reliable partners, including Airbnb, Booking.com, Fewo-direkt, TripAdvisor and TUI. Whether it's a beach house by the sea, a holiday home in the countryside or a flat in the city: HomeToGo combines features, price and location and finds the perfect accommodation for your next trip worldwide.
Founded in 2014, HomeToGo currently employs more than 250 people and operates 23 localised apps and websites in Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region. The brands CASAMUNDO, Wimdu and Tripping.com belong to HomeToGo. The search starts at www.hometogo.de or on the go with the HomeToGo app.
On behalf of Mapify:
Luther, Start-ups & Venture Capital: Philipp Glock (Lead), Michael Ströbel, LL.M. (Senior Associate), Ema Buric (Senior Associate)
Luther, Capital Markets, Banking & Finance: Christoph Schauenburg, LL.M. (Partner), Stefan Jokel (Senior Associate)
Luther, IP & Copyright Law: Dr Wulff-Axel Schmidt (Partner), Laura Hoffmann, LL.M. (Associate)
Luther, Tax Law: Nicole Fröhlich (Partner), Ramona Hubracht, LL.M. (Senior Associate)
Luther, Employment Law: Achim Braner (Partner), Nadine Ceruti (Senior Associate)
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