Travel technology company Travelnest has received seed funding of £3 million from the Scottish National Investment Bank.
The growth capital, alongside new funds from existing investors, should enable the Edinburgh-based company to target new markets and increase its service offering.
Travelnest enables vacation home owners to reach a wider audience by bringing together multiple consumer booking channels in one place.
The bank’s investment is expected to support job creation, while helping to expand activity to capitalize on the post-pandemic recovery of tourism internationally.
Mark Munro, Executive Director of Sustainable Investing at the bank, said: “Travelnest is an exciting company in the travel technology space with significant potential for global expansion.”
“The investment confirms Edinburgh and Scotland as one of the UK’s fastest growing tech hubs and an incubator for tech companies, aligning with the bank’s innovation mission and Supporting the key elements of the Scottish Technology and Ecosystem Review and the National Strategy for Economic Transformation Initiatives Supporting technology enterprise focused on entrepreneurship and the creation of skilled jobs.
At the end of 2020, TravelNest secured £1.8m from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Scottish Enterprise to help drive staycation growth during the pandemic.
These were a £1.5million loan from SVB’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and £300,000 from Scottish Enterprise’s Early Stage Growth Challenge Fund.
(Photo: Mike Wilkinson)
Scottish National Investment Bank’s first full year of operation saw a substantial recruitment programme, numerous operational systems put in place and £194.4m committed to 14 mission-aligned investments in projects and businesses.
Sarah Roughead, Acting Chief Executive, said: “I am immensely proud of what the Bank has accomplished over the past 12 months.
“Significant progress has been made in investing in innovative and scalable businesses – the bank has provided direct investments of £1-30m and has co-invested alongside a number of industry investors private sector, raising additional capital.
“The Bank has recruited a strong team in the context of Covid-19 and is well placed to anchor the solid foundations it has built and to achieve its strategic objectives and other investments aligned with its mission.”
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