<article><a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Rocket Internet">Rocket Internet</a>-backed economy hotel chain <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=ZEN%20Rooms">ZEN Rooms</a> announced today that it has secured a $15-million investment from <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Yanolja">Yanolja</a>, a Seoul-based accommodation and leisure firm that seeks to expand into Southeast Asia.</article>

<a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Rocket Internet">Rocket Internet</a>-backed economy hotel chain <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=ZEN%20Rooms">ZEN Rooms</a> announced today that it has secured a $15-million investment from <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Yanolja">Yanolja</a>, a Seoul-based accommodation and leisure firm that seeks to expand into Southeast Asia.
ZEN Rooms operates an economy hotel chain and online booking platform in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It said the investment by Yanolja was the largest by a Korean firm in a Southeast Asian startup. In return, Yanolja will gain a significant minority stake in the Singapore-based hospitality startup.
The investment from Yanolja adds to the $8 million that the startup has raised since its founding in 2015, including a $4.1-million Series A in April 2017 led by Korea&#8217;s Redbadge Pacific and SBI Investment Korea.
A TechCrunch report in March said the loss-making ZEN Rooms was aggressively scouting for prospective investors to avoid a possible shutdown. The company, however, denied that report.
ZEN Rooms instead revealed that it has downsized its Thai business, which co-founder and managing director Nathan Boublil described as the company&#8217;s least profitable, to focus on more profitable countries.
The Yanolja investment allows the startup to stave off any potential shutdown for now. The deal also gives the Korean firm the right to acquire 100 per cent of ZEN Rooms in the future.
In a statement on Thursday, ZEN Rooms said it will use the fresh capital to expand its inventory base in current and new markets and continue to invest in technology to keep improving efficiency.
“Southeast Asia is still at the beginning of both the hotel franchising revolution and its travel demand surge,&#8221; said Kiren Tanna, co-founder of ZEN Rooms.
Headquartered in Seoul, Yanolja is an online-to-offline accommodation platform that has more than 9 million online members and 41,000 listings on its travel and stay database.
It also claims to be the first travel-and-stay business in South Korea that has more than 120 franchise hotels.
“Starting with this strategic investment into ZEN Rooms, we shall seek to expand to become the most affordable hotel chain and first fully integrated booking platform for leisure activities as well as hotels for leisure activities as well as hotels, going beyond the domestic sphere to around the globe,” said Yanolja vice president Jong-yoon Kim.
The Southeast Asian travel market is today the fastest growing worldwide, undergoing a rapid and continuous surge in both domestic and international economy travel demand, similarly to China 15 years ago and Korea 5 years ago, according to a report cited by ZEN Rooms.
Yanolja’s foray in Southeast Asia comes at a time when the region has become a favourite tourist destination for Korean travellers. Additionally, 17 per cent of foreign travellers to Korea come from Southeast Asia.

Rocket Internet-backed economy hotel chain ZEN Rooms secured $15-million investment from Yanolja, a Seoul-based accommodation and leisure firm.

S Korea's Yanolja picks minority stake in Rocket-backed Zen Rooms for $15m

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S Korea's Yanolja picks minority stake in Rocket-backed Zen Rooms for $15m

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