David Liria and Xavier Lloveras dedicated their final degree project to the creation of a company to exchange houses for vacation purposes. Last summer, already with the graduate in Business Management and Administration from IQS under their arms, they decided to continue developing their business project. Convinced that they had a good business idea before them, they applied to enter the Startupbootcamp acceleration program and were chosen. It was while in Amsterdam being accelerated by Startupbootcamp, in late 2022, that the entrepreneurs launched their CircleHome vacation home exchange platform.
“With CircleHome we take home exchanges to the next level, providing security methods such as insurance or user verification to create a trustworthy and secure communityâ€, explains David Liria. The co-founder also adds another differentiating characteristic of the startup: “We are especially targeting young people who, like us, want to travel more and for longer, but without spending money on accommodation.” The idea arose from the experience of Xavier Lloveras, who explains that he has traveled the world as a racing car driver. In addition, it turns out that both entrepreneurs had experience in home exchange.
The platform has been operational since the beginning of February and users can choose from more than 50 houses from ten different countries. In order to access the exchange service, it is necessary to pay an annual subscription of 99 euros. Although it is still early to talk about billing, the founders are proud to have closed their first round of financing, amounting to 120,000 euros. Lloveras says that this money will help them reach their goal of reaching between 2,000 and 3,000 users in Europe this year. The Old Continent is, for the moment, the market in which entrepreneurs move, but later they aspire to make the leap outside the European borders.
