Shareholders in Homestay.com are keeping the faith with a cash injection of €3m in July 2015 following on from €750,000 in May 2015, according to recent filings. The funding rounds bring the company’s capital base to just on €10m. Homestay is an online rent a room service where the host must be present. In Dublin there are currently 250 homes offering Homestay accommodation.

Homestay Technologies’ founders are Debbie Flynn and Tom Kennedy, one of the founders of Hostelworld.com. In the two recent funding rounds, Kennedy invested €730,000. The company’s main VC investor, Delta Partners, ponied up the same amount, with Warren Capital investing €300,000.

The funding rounds also tapped Homestay’s private investors Cyril McGuire, Joe and Catherine O’Leary, Brendan and Pauline Smyth, Michael and Evelyn Cawley and chairman Patrick Holohan, who between them invested €1.2m.The taxpayer invested €400,000 in the venture in 2014 through Enterprise Ireland.

Homestay’s chief executive, pictured, is Alan Clarke (35), formerly of Paddy Power. The company booked a loss of €1.6m in 2013, bringing accumulated losses to €2.7m.

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