Greek Startup Blueground Acquires US Housing on Demand Leader

Blueground’s focus has always been urban centers – having apartments in 11 cities in the U.S. and 19 cities internationally. Credit: Dllu, CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikipedia

Greek startup Blueground acquired the Denver-based Travelers Haven, the leading provider of housing on-demand in the U.S.

The deal announced earlier in February will give Blueground the ability to provide accommodations to clients on demand in the U.S. in addition to its already established inventory of apartments around the world.

The combined organization will employ over 1,200 people and is expected to reach over $600m in revenue in 2023.

The company launched in Athens by Alex Chatzieleftheriou and Alexis Maragkos is on its way to becoming the second Greek “unicorn” after Viva Wallet who last year signed a deal with American banking giant JP Morgan by which the latter acquired approximately 49 percent of the online bank.

“Unicorn” is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a private startup company with a value of over $1 billion.

Blueground’s focus has always been the core, urban centers – having apartments in 11 cities in the U.S. and 19 cities internationally – however, through the acquisition, the company will offer furnished apartments across a wider geographic scope.

The acquisition will see more housing options in more locations for corporate clients in the U.S. while also growing Blueground’s corporate client base.

Prior to the acquisition of Travelers Haven, Blueground acquired Tabas, the fastest-growing flexible living startup in Brazil that brought 1,000 apartments in Rio de Janeiro, São Paolo, and Brasilia to the Blueground portfolio.

The Greek startup Blueground started in Athens

Blueground started with a few apartments in Athens in 2012 and now manages 12,000 apartments in 30 cities.

The company was co-founded 10 years ago by CEO Alex Chatzieleftheriou, who, after many years as a business traveler, had experienced first-hand the pain points of living out of hotels for work for months at a time.

He aspired to create a way that people could feel settled and at home, while free to explore the world.

After teaming up with longtime friend and Co-founder Alexis Maragkos, the two sketched out the ideal apartment: accessible online, move-in-ready, easy-to-book, and one that gave people the confidence & peace of mind to rent, move, & live seamlessly. Blueground was born!

From their first booking – which had the duo up all night assembling furniture – came word-of-mouth leads, a prominent local investor, and additional co-founders.

Today, Blueground continues growing, and Chatzieleftheriou envisions being in 50 major cities worldwide by 2025.

“When I set out to create Blueground, my goal was to offer a simple way for people to move freely between neighborhoods, cities, and countries around the world, while providing high-quality service, so they can explore easier and more efficiently,” says Alex Chatzieleftheriou.

“We have deep admiration for the Travelers Haven team and what they’ve built over the last 15 years. I am excited about this next chapter together to provide turn-key, tech-enabled homes both on-demand and readily available at a global level.”

Blueground and Travelers Haven will continue to operate as separate entities

Founded in 2008 by Elia Wallen, Travelers Haven caters to a wide range of clients, providing stays that are tailored to their specific needs and location, with options to search by length of stay, budgetary requirements, and more.

In 2022, the company provided more than 10,000 people with rentals by sourcing apartments on an on-demand basis through industry-leading software and a network of vendors making up a virtual inventory of 2,700+ apartments that spans every U.S. city and town.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Travelers Haven is a bootstrapped business, showing a strong financial profile with steady year-over-year revenue growth and sustained profitability; the company exceeded $100M of revenue in 2022.

For now Blueground and Travelers Haven will continue to operate as separate entities, with plans to fully integrate in the future.

In the meantime, the two companies will be sharing best practices and offering their combined services to each other’s clients, while working together to merge tech platforms and service offerings.