Portland, Ore.-based vacation rental platform Vacasa is going public.
The company announced Thursday that it will merge with TPG Pace Solutions this fall in a SPAC deal that values Vacasa at $4.5 billion.
Founded in 2009, Vacasa manages more than 30,000 vacation homes in 34 U.S. states and four other countries, and bills itself as the leading full-service vacation rental management company in North America.
The company forecasts $757 million in revenue this year, up from $492 million in 2020, and growing to $1.3 billion in 2023. It projects gross bookings of $1.6 billion in 2021, up from $935 million in 2020. An investor presentation reveals that Vacasa is not yet profitable, with an adjusted net loss of $35 million last year, down from $66.4 million the year prior. It estimates a net loss of $49 million this year.
Vacasa is using tech to disrupt the hospitality industry, similar to companies such as Airbnb, which went public in December, and Vrbo, which was acquired by Expedia for $3.9 billion in 2015.
But it’s not just a marketplace — it also helps homeowners manage the entire booking process from start-to-finish. Vacasa employs thousands of people across its markets for on-the-ground “field-based roles” — housekeepers, reservations agents, local managers, etc.
Vacasa in some ways competes with Airbnb and Expedia’s Vrbo, but also manages listings on those platforms.
Travel companies have been rocked by the pandemic in various ways, but the vacation rental market has boomed.
The SPAC deal will inject $485 million into Vacasa, which has raised $634.5 million to date, including a $108 million cash infusion in June 2020 led by Silver Lake, a top Silicon Valley tech investment firm that also recently bought big stakes in Expedia and Airbnb. Vacasa’s existing investors will retain a 88% stake in the company following the merger.
The company is ranked No. 2 on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of top Pacific Northwest startups. It will trade under the ticker VCSA. Vacasa CEO Matt Roberts, who took over in February 2020 for Vacasa founder Eric Breon, will continue to lead Vacasa.
TPG Pace Solutions is a SPAC formed by TPG, a global investment firm that has already sponsored seven SPACs via its TPG Pace Group platform. TPG was an early investor in Uber and Airbnb.
