EnGrande

Invested:
November 2011

Exited:
January 2017

Return:
0.3x MoC

Sector:
Consumer

Stage:
Mid (core strategy)

Headquarters:
Barcelona, Spain

Region:
Pan-European, Global

Business:
Online budget accommodation booking agent

Business at time of investment

EnGrande was an entrepreneur-led company focused on generating booking for budget hotels through a number of websites, the most successful of which was budgetplaces.com.  The company offered an inventory of 7,000 1-2 star establishments predominantly in Europe and employed approximately 85 people.

Investment rationale

The European hotel sector generates sales of €85 billion per annum of which on-line bookings currently account for around €14 billion but are growing at more than 14% per annum.  The European budget accommodation sector itself is currently worth approximately €15 billion per annum and is rapidly growing due in part to the expansion of low cost carriers.  The fragmented nature of accommodation suppliers and their low penetration on-line presented EnGrande with a strong opportunity to accelerate the growth of its network of providers and become the leading player in the budget market.

Value creation

• Strengthened the management team: helped build out the management team with a new CFO, CTO and CEO and hired heads of Supply and Digital Channels

• New office openings in New York City, London and Paris in order to significantly increase stock of establishments on offer

• Reinforced online marketing and technology teams and systems

Today

EnGrande generates bookings for more than 10,000 establishments, with a footprint expanded to Asia-Pacific and North America.