- Rapid growth: MyCamper has doubled its revenue on average every year since 2016.
- Big community: MyCamper has a community of over 85’000 camping enthusiastic members. With over 3'500 vehicles, MyCamper offers the largest selection of rentable camping vehicles.
- Expansion: MyCamper is the leading camper-sharing platform in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
- Professional investors: MyCamper was the first start-up to convince all five lions from "Die Höhle der Löwen" (The Lion's Den). In this round, you have the opportunity to invest under the same conditions as the professional investors.
"Our mission is to make camping accessible and sustainable for everyone"
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Stefan Lieberherr, co-founder and CEO of MyCamper
Camping is experiencing a real boom. Over 3 million camping vehicles are currently registered in Europe. However, the fact that these are only used for an average of 20 days per year is quickly forgotten. MyCamper was founded to make the usage of existing resources more efficient. By giving private camping-car owners the opportunity to rent out their vehicles easily and securely, we have managed to generate a total booking volume of over 30 million CHF in Switzerland in just a few years.
The next milestone in the history of MyCamper is international scaling. In December, we acquired our Swedish competitor Housecar, becoming the leading platform in Sweden, Norway and Finland in one swoop. We recently expanded into Denmark, another market with huge potential and over 130’000 campervans. There are over 400% more registered camping vehicles in Scandinavia than in Switzerland. However, last year we only achieved 25% of our booking volume in Scandinavia. This is mainly due to a shorter presence of MyCamper in these markets. On the other hand, these markets offer huge untapped potential, which we will now develop at high speed.
HISTORY
2015: Michele Matt founds MyCamper after realising that his VW bus is standing around most of the time despite intensive use. With the founding of MyCamper and the newly built platform, he solves the problem that camping vehicles often sit around unused and only cause costs. A problem he and many other camper owners face.
2018: After two intensive years of growth, Michele and Mirjam decide to quit their jobs and fully focus on MyCamper. At the same time, they bring Stefan Lieberherr as marketing manager and co-founder on board to continue scaling the company. After the first round of financing with business angels, they end the year with an offering of just under 500 vehicles.
2019: MyCamper takes part in the first season of the TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (The Lion's Den) and is the first start-up to receive a commitment from all five lions.
MyCamper is voted one of the Top 100 Startups in Switzerland in 2019.
2020: COVID-19 breaks out, leading to a large wave of cancellations due to travel restrictions and uncertainties. Campsites are closed until the beginning of June, making MyCamper's annual targets a distant prospect. Thanks to a show of force by the whole team we are able to bridge the gap in the second half of the year. Resulting in a booking volume of more than 5.5 million CHF with 1'328 vehicles despite all the opposition.
2021: The entire camping industry experiences an exceptional year - campsites are fully booked and everyone is searching for a camping vehicle to rent. We are able to increase our booking volume by another 50% to more than 9.5 million CHF.
At the same time, we implement the first step of our long-planned expansion strategy by acquiring a minority stake in Housecar. Housecar was the leading camper-sharing platform in Sweden at the time.
This year, the Financial Times names MyCamper one of the 1000 fastest growing start-ups in Europe.
2022: The second step of the expansion strategy follows through the full acquisition and integration of Housecar and its excellent team. Housecar is now also the leading camper-sharing platform in Norway and Finland and is in the midst of scaling up. There are several synergies with the acquisition, one of which is the further development of the platform. The MyCamper and Housecar platforms will soon be merged, allowing resources to be pooled and efficiencies to be gained.
2023: The start of the new year is successful and the expansion continues unstoppably. In March, MyCamper launches its entry into Denmark, another exciting market. After just a few weeks, MyCamper is already the market leader. Another market will follow before the end of the year.
THE FUTURE
Our vision is to make camping accessible to everyone. However, this should not be done at the expense of nature, but by using existing resources more efficiently. We will realise our vision by implementing our corporate strategy, which is based on three pillars
- Scaling in Scandinavia
- Expansion into other markets
As we started much later in the Scandinavian markets than in Switzerland, they have a much higher growth potential. We have entered the Swedish market in 2020, the Norwegian market in 2021, followed by Finland in 2022 and Denmark in 2023.
Why should you invest in MyCamper?
- Growth potential: We are already the leading camper sharing platform in Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Especially in the Scandinavian markets, however, we still have very large growth potential. In addition, the entire camping market has also been growing strongly for several years.
- Scalability and profitability: As a technologically advanced sharing platform, our business model is designed for growth and scaling. As we grow in size, revenues increase disproportionately to the costs of the business. This is reflected in our profitability projections.
- Mission and sustainability: Our business model is based on the sharing approach, which is built on making better use of existing resources. Camping vehicles are used on average only 20 days per year. With MyCamper, vehicles are shared and better utilized during downtime.
Your investment will help us continue to grow and further our mission.
Update (14.5.2023): The demand for the crowdinvesting was overwhelming. Because many interested investors have not had a chance yet to purchase a stake we increased the funding goal by 250’000 CHF. The funds will be invested to accelerate growth in Scandinavia even further.
Update (17.5.2023): Past experience shows that 5-10% of investors don’t pay in the amount they committed to. Because of that we increased the funding goal by 5%. That way we ensure that the invested, paid in capital is as close to 1.25m CHF as possible.
Our existing investors will contribute an additional 750’000 CHF for the cash part of the already completed acquisition of Housecar. The existing investors invest at the same valuation as the crowd investors.
THE MARKET
The camping market is in the midst of a boom. Camping has established itself as one of the most popular forms of vacation in Europe and the overall market has been growing steadily for years, even before COVID-19. Among the fastest growing markets are Switzerland, where the number of overnight camping stays increased by an average of 12% each year from 2016-2019, and also Norway, where growth averaged 11% per year (source: Bundesamt für Statistik, Statistics Norway).
There are several reasons why camping is so popular
- Adventure: People want experiences when they go on holiday. Camping is an adventure and many of our renters talk about a unique "feeling of freedom" when they come back from their trip.
- Infrastructure: The camping infrastructure has improved enormously. The image of camping is not so dusty anymore and there are great, modern campsites that meet the highest standards. The variety of offers has increased tremendously: from large, modern campsites with all amenities, including wellness areas, to small micro campings in unique locations, there is everything.
- Flexibility: Many people value flexibility and spontaneity in their free time, so that they can adapt their travel routes to suit their mood. This need for spontaneous travel planning is ideally satisfied with the freedom of camping holidays.
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The camping trend is also attracting companies to offer their services in this growing market. MyCamper has managed to become number one in all active markets thanks to a consistently pursued strategy, an outstanding team and a focus on customer satisfaction and proximity.
- There is no direct competitor in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
- In Switzerland, there is one competitor that has been trying to enter the market for some time but has not made significant progress due to our dominance. The competitor has less than 10% of the number of vehicles offered on MyCamper.
- In Norway, there is one competitor that rents vehicles from a commercial provider as well as from private individuals. Our competitive advantage there has been growing steadily since the beginning of the year.
Stefan Lieberherr holds a master's degree from the University of St. Gallen. He has gained experience in online marketing and e-commerce at Nestlé, Google and siroop. He has already built up a successful online marketing agency himself. When he is not renting out his VW California, he is out on the road with his family. He is more of a glamper (glamorous camping) who regularly leaves the camping grill at home so that he doesn't have to cook when camping.
Rickard Magnusson is co-founder of Housecar, was CEO there and is now CPO at MyCamper. As CPO he is responsible for product development. He was mainly responsible for scaling Housecar in Scandinavia. He studied engineering at the University of Uppsala. He attended a school in the remote north of Sweden when he was young. He put his time up there to good use and got a pilot's licence alongside his education.
Anders Lisspers is co-founder of Housecar and CTO of MyCamper. He also comes from the north of Sweden and studied at Uppsala University. He built the Housecar platform by himself. He recently became a father to a little boy with whom he wants to share his passion for Arsenal F.C.
Oliver Oberle is COO/CFO of MyCamper. He holds a master's degree from the University of St. Gallen. After graduating, he pursued a finance career at Johnson & Johnson until he breathed startup air and found his passion there. Before MyCamper, he worked for 3 years at Wingtra as Finance Director.
Michele Matt is the founder of MyCamper. He has a master's degree from the University of Basel and then worked for several years in banking and consulting, where he also met Stefan. Michele is the biggest camper at MyCamper and has recently upgraded from his VW California to a motorhome, which also comfortably accommodates his family with two daughters.
Mirjam is a co-founder of MyCamper and holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. She worked in banking and sales before joining MyCamper and then built up the operations team, which includes community management and customer support. Mirjam recently became a parent and has now returned to MyCamper as Project Manager.
Jürg has been a MyCamper investor from the very beginning and already invested in MyCamper in the first financing round in 2018. He is a business angel and in the meantime also known from the TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (The Lion's Den).
Anja Graf is an entrepreneur and founder of Vision Apartments, a platform with furnished flats for short-term rent. She joined MyCamper with the TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (The Lion's Den) and has been actively contributing her marketplace and platform knowledge since then.
Roland Brack is an entrepreneur and founder of Competec, the corporate group to which brack.ch belongs. He is an enthusiastic start-up investor and is known from the TV show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (The Lion's Den).
Patrik Grobe is a long-time investor in MyCamper and has been a member of the board of directors since the company was founded. He has over thirty years of experience in the insurance industry and is always on hand to offer advice and support to the management and founder team