LekkeSlaap sold to group that includes Investec, FirstRand founders | News24

LekkeSlaap has actually handled lodging reservations for more than 9 million visitors because 2013.

A consortium consisting of Investec and the household workplaces of famous lenders GT Ferreira and Laurie Dippenaar has actually purchased popular online lodging platform LekkeSlaap.

LekkeSlaap co-founders Jonathan Womersley and Marcel van de Ghinste offered business for a concealed quantity, however CEO Frans Joubert and the existing executive group will remain on.

Janic Capital, the Dippenaar household’s financial investment car led by Laurie’s kid Adriaan Dippenaar, has actually invested along with the Ferreira Family Office, Investec and the Moolman Family Office, the household financial investment lorry of widely known home designers, the Moolman Group.

GT Ferreira and Laurie Dippenaar co-founded FirstRand and Rand Merchant Bank.

Personal equity company Bellair Road Investment Partners, which owns stakes in Montego Pet Nutrition and Freedom of Movement, and Janic Capital are the primary financiers, LekkeSlaap stated.

Previous RMB CEO and leaving OUTsurance board chair Herman Bosman will end up being the brand-new LekkeSlaap chair, while Robert Paddock, who co-founded online education business GetSmarter, has actually been selected to the board. Both males have actually bought LekkeSlaap together with the brand-new financiers.

Bosman takes over from previous Woolworths CEO and chair Simon Susman, who has actually been chairperson given that 2013, when he initially bought the group.

Van De Ghinste and Womersley satisfied as engineering trainees at the University of Cape Town. In their early twenties, they chose to introduce an online reservation platform and invested months encouraging hotels and B&B s to note on their prepared brand-new website, which was developed in 2009 under the name TravelGround.

Susman’s financial investment allowed them to release a lodging website that was at first focused on the Afrikaans-speaking market.

The endeavor at first ran out of a garage, with the creators informing Finweek that LekkeSlaap was cash-positive and rewarding every year from the start.

The website has actually handled the lodging reservations for more than 9 million visitors. It presently has 40 000 homes noted.

On Thursday, Womersley stated they think they had actually discovered the ideal long-lasting owners for LekkeSlaap.

“We could not be more ecstatic to see what the management group and the brand-new owners construct from here.”

Joubert stated LekkeSlaap prepared to broaden more throughout Southern Africa, investing “more deeply in innovation and localisation, and producing even much better experiences for our visitors and hosts”.