Qmango, a leading Chinese B&B booking platform, has recently announced the completion of a new round of financing from JRC Capital, which is an emerging institutional investor in cultural tourism.
After announcing the fundraising, QMango said it is very optimistic about the prospects of China's B&B industry and has set up a RMB 500 million investment fund to upgrade itself from a booking platform into a full-service platform by working on the supply chain and financial services in addition to its booking and marketing business.
Ge Gao, CEO of QMango, said that the company has become as a pioneer and leader in the B&B industry after 10 years of exploration, having built a network of over 200,000 B&B operators. The homestay industry in China has entered a golden decade since 2016. It is expected to grow at an annual growth rate of over 20% and will eventually have over 1 million homestay operators and generate RMB 120 billion in return. The rosy outlook is based on enhanced policy supports and capital injections as consumers ready to spend more are reacquainted with B&B products, and professional hotel management companies are joining the fray.
QMango has benefited from the explosive growth in the accommodation sector in 2017 and has been returning a profit every month. It is currently operating a "B&B Reservation Platform" with the brand "Green Mango", and "High-end B&B and Boutique Hotel Marketing Services" with the brand "Seeking Hostels". In particular, "Seeking Hostels" has been repositioned to attract quality homestay listings and high-end guests with family tours, private meetings, honeymoon, leisure trips, parties, team building, high-end vacation and other themes. By connecting the needs of guests and the attributes of its listed properties, the service will help guests better choose products and operators improve design and services.
Being the first homestay booking platform, QMango is also the first company to launch a free PMS to effectively address the problems in purchase orders and information technology for homestay operators. It will explore the business areas of "B&B Supply Chain" and "B&B Finance", in a bid to help B&B operators improve product quality, reduce operating costs, and lower spends in procurement, decoration and expansion.
The shareholders of QMango include Keytone Ventures, Million Tons Capital, JRC Capital and China National Travel Service Group and all of them are players in tourism, finance, culture, consumption and other spaces. The shareholder composition will help integrate resources from all aspects of the B&B industry, said Mr Gao.
