Adevinta announces the acquisition of two online businesses in France, Locasun and PayCar, to strengthen and deepen verticals penetration in key growth segments for leboncoin, the number one peer-to-peer website in France and leading online marketplace for cars, real estate and jobs.
Locasun, the holiday rental and travel specialist in B2C online reservations of vacation properties across Europe, was founded 18 years ago. It has been acquired from its two shareholders to strengthen leboncoin’s growing presence in holiday property rentals. Locasun benefits from an extensive rental portfolio, which is unmatched in Europe, and key technologies to help professionals manage online transactions. The online travel agency has two websites: www.locasun.fr for holiday rentals and www.locasun-vp.fr, which offers online flash sales of short breaks and trips.
PayCar is a startup specializing in peer-to-peer payment for second-hand vehicle purchases founded in 2015, and leboncoin has bought it from two controlling shareholders. PayCar was the first startup to join leboncoin’s accelerator ventures program in 2017 and will now strengthen leboncoin’s position in the used cars vertical, where leboncoin is the number one online marketplace in France.
Rolv Erik Ryssdal, CEO of Adevinta, commented:
“Locasun and PayCar provide excellent opportunities for Adevinta to continue to cement our ranking as the number one online marketplace provider in France. With Locasun, we strengthen our position in the holiday rental vertical, and with PayCar we extend the value chain of our core cars vertical.”
Antoine Jouteau, CEO of leboncoin, said:
“Over the years, leboncoin has established itself as France’s leading site in the peer-to-peer holiday rental market. The integration of Locasun, whose offer is mainly business-to-consumer and international, will allow leboncoin to provide a complete and diversified offer for French travellers. Sharing our expertise and technology will benefit both brands. Locasun will gain exposure and momentum thanks to leboncoin, and leboncoin will advance more quickly in developing its offer for vacation accommodation professionals, enabling us to offer a comprehensive choice to holidaymakers.”
“Meanwhile, the integration of PayCar is a natural fit with leboncoin’s ambition to develop services around our core business of peer-to-peer classified advertising and services that include the payment and delivery options we are currently launching for consumer products. As the leader in the online car market, leboncoin has a duty to provide a secure payment service. The collaboration with PayCar in our accelerator was very positive: we share the same objectives as well as the same mindset, making the merger an obvious choice for both sides.”
Terms of the transactions are not being publicly disclosed.
Further background:
Locasun
The two Locasun websites bring together 1,100 professionals and businesses, principally real estate agents, holiday clubs, and campsites, offering more than 125,000 holiday rental listings across Europe, mainly in France (38%), Spain (18%) and Italy (15%). More than 250,000 clients organize their breaks on Locasun each year.
PayCar
PayCar’s employees will be merged into leboncoin from 11 June 2019. The technical synergies between the two platforms will be introduced rapidly to allow leboncoin users to benefit from the expertise and services of PayCar.
Key metrics:
More than 10,000 people have bought or sold their car with PayCar.
The service is rated 9.7/10 based on verified reviews.
leboncoin
Key metrics for leboncoin’s car marketplace vertical
11.6 million unique visitors per month (1)
3 million online classified ads for vehicles
91% of market share of auto professionals in 2018 (2)
27,000 business clients in the ‘Vehicle’ category per month (3)
France’s number one site for used cars (4)
Sources: (1) Médiamétrie Netratings, March 2019; (2) Autobiz; (3) leboncoin, March 2019; (4) Etude NetObserver, Harris Interactive, autumn 2017