Blueground Buys On-Demand Housing Platform Nestpick

25.08.2023 - 13:33 / skift.com / Srividya Kalyanaraman / Alex Chatzieleftheriou

Blueground, the property management company that operates furnished 30-plus-day rentals, has acquired Nestpick in an equity-based deal. Nestpick’s platform lists month to month rentals of furnished accommodation. The company is registered in Germany, with offices in New York.

The deal comes as Blueground attempts to build a partner network that will list what the company says is vetted third-party inventory.  For successful bookings, Blueground will charge a referral fee. This partner network will initially add over 18,000 units to Blueground’s established network of apartments around the world, with the goal of adding 50,000 units within 2024. Blueground has 15,000 apartments. Blueground’s strongest markets include NYC, LA, San Fran, Dubai, London and Paris.

The network will bring over portfolios from companies including Kasa and Placemakr, based on established criteria to meet the needs of current and future Blueground guests.

“The Nestpick team will help us build our partner network,” said Alex Chatzieleftheriou, co-founder and CEO of Blueground. “It’s the merging of Blueground and external operators, and what we are getting is integration, is know-how and speed to bring operators to the platform.”

The companies did not disclose details of the deal.

Nestpick founder and CEO Omer Kucukdere said that the company has been cash flow positive since the last two quarters of 2019 and in 2022 Nestpick’s platform had 15 million visitors and $80 million dollars in booking value. 

Blueground, with offices in Greece and the U.S., provides extended stays (one month to one year) furnished corporate housing in urban centers, with apartments in 11 cities in the U.S. and 19 cities internationally. Nestpick is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

This is Blueground’s second acquisition in five months — In February, the company acquired corporate housing specialist Travelers Haven to grow its footprint across the U.S. At the time of the acquisition Chatzieleftheriou said the combined organization (Blueground and Travelers Haven) will employ 1,200 people, and is expected to reach over $600 million in revenue in 2023.

This deal with Nestpick further bolsters Blueground’s presence in the US, and ties into the company’s larger strategy of building a global accommodation network. Chatzieleftheriou noted that it will also look at strategic partnerships and franchising agreements to scale that network in the future.