From Silicon Valley To The Silicon Hills: Outdoorsy Chooses Austin As New Headquarters

World's Fastest-Growing Outdoor Marketplace Opens Operations and Starts Hiring Deep in the Heart of Texas

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Apr 09, 2018, 08:00 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, April 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Outdoorsy, the world's fastest-growing outdoor recreational travel marketplace, today announced the opening of its United States headquarters in Austin, Texas. Outdoorsy hosts the largest bookable inventory of recreational vehicles (RVs) worldwide and is powering road trips and RV adventures across North America and beyond.

With 40 percent of Outdoorsy's customer base being under the age of 40, the company is tapping into this new consumer travel trend and building a third lodging category with “mobile hotel rooms.” Customers can go where home-sharing sites and traditional brick-and-mortar hotels cannot go to reach more places than ever before as Outdoorsy rapidly expands a global fleet toward its goal of mobilizing more than 18 million idle RVs around the globe.

"We are thrilled to be a part of a thriving tech-savvy and beautiful city that embraces our values of celebrating both community and its surroundings," said Jennifer Young, co-founder and CMO of Outdoorsy. "We'll be hiring some of the best and brightest talent Austin has to offer, while also ensuring everyone can easily access and safely enjoy recreational travel – whether that means heading across the state in an Airstream or enjoying the beautiful surroundings of the Hill Country in a Mercedes Winnebago."

Why Austin?

After much research and analysis, Austin was chosen as Outdoorsy's headquarters thanks in part to:

Talent pool depth – particularly among millennials. Ranked second only behind New York City as the top city for millennials to live, work and play. Austin is also in close proximity to a fast-growing customer base and has an overall business-friendly environment.^[i]
Austin recently being named the best city for job seekers in 2017.^[ii]
Its vibrant business and tech scene across several industries.
An award-winning park system with more than 20,000 acres of green space, 200 athletic facilities and 700 staff members pioneering innovative and enriching programming.

With the move, the company's management team and dozens of employees will call the city home. Currently, there are 85 employees globally, but the company is expanding rapidly due to heavy recruitment, adding to that number weekly.

Turning the Travel Industry on its Head

With 40 percent of Outdoorsy's customer base being under the age of 40, Outdoorsy is tapping into this new consumer travel trend and building a third lodging category with "mobile hotel rooms." Customers can go where home-sharing sites and traditional brick-and-mortar hotels cannot go to reach more places than ever before as Outdoorsy rapidly expands a global fleet toward its goal of mobilizing more than 18 million idle RVs around the globe.

Founded in 2015, Outdoorsy is turning the travel industry on its head, thanks to booking more than 450,000 travel days over the last year and generating over $100 million dollars through the online booking platform. The company's global footprint includes its recent Canada debut, and will continue its global expansion in 2018 into anticipated markets that include Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France and Italy.

"More than 12 percent of American households own a recreational vehicle, yet rarely use it," said Jeff Cavins, co-founder and CEO of Outdoorsy. "At the same time, more than 40 million consumers try to rent a recreational vehicle in America each year with little or no luck. Outdoorsy identified the opportunity to bring this multi-billion-dollar RV industry online and into the cross-cultural phenomenon of the sharing economy."

Outdoorsy also recently announced it raised $25 million in Series B funding, led by Aviva Ventures and Altos Ventures. The Series B funding will be used to expand the company's sales and marketing efforts, broaden its geographic footprint, and grow its engineering and product teams. For more information on Outdoorsy, visit Outdoorsy.com.

About Outdoorsy

Headquartered in Austin, Texas with additional offices in the United States and Canada, Outdoorsy is the world's largest and most trusted, on-demand marketplace for recreational vehicles, with hundreds of thousands of rental days, 2+ million message exchanges between RV owners and renters, and the fastest growing global fleet of unique outdoor vehicles. Outdoorsy is mobilizing the 18+ million idle RVs around the world, ensuring everyone has the access, choice and opportunity to safely enjoy outdoor recreational vehicle travel and empowering RV owners to realize life-changing financial benefits. From finding a house-on-wheels to adventure-equipment-you-can-sleep-in to SUVs with roof tents and all the equipment you need during the trip, Outdoorsy is the broadest range platform for outdoor accommodations and experiences. You can find us at www.outdoorsy.com and come along for the ride on Outdoorsy's unique RV-loving Never Idle Travel Journal.

i) 2016 Niche Data Survey
ii) NerdWallet Study (2016)

SOURCE Outdoorsy