Seattle-based Cabana is fueling up on money to service rising demand, saying Thursday that it landed $3 million to spice up manufacturing of its luxurious journey vans.
“We booked over 8,000 nights in 2022 and have already began reserving out far into 2023,” CEO and co-founder Scott Kubly informed Startup. “This previous summer time, we have been absolutely booked each weekend and nearly all weekdays. For each one visitor we served, we had a visitor that was unable to search out an obtainable van.”
Kubly, a former Seattle Division of Transportation head and Lime exec, launched Cabana in the summertime of 2020. The startup lets campers lease custom-built cargo van designed for journey. Its Ford Transit vans embody beds, storage, bogs, and web. Clients can lease the vans by way of the Cabana app, which additionally permits prospects to lock and unlock the autos.
Cabana presently has a fleet of fifty vans and goals to develop to 150 by the tip of 2023. The startup additionally introduced plans to deploy new van fashions and increase into new markets. Cabana presently operates in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angelas, and it’ll launch in Austin, Texas, early subsequent month.
Regardless of the current progress, there was some bumps within the highway. The Omicron wave and excessive gasoline costs put a dent on demand, Kubly mentioned, whereas provide chain and labor shortages beforehand slowed van manufacturing. Nonetheless, gross sales recovered with the return of occasions and festivals, he added, whereas rising airfare costs and pilot shortages additionally propped up gross sales from locals.
“Now we have discovered that for each headwind, we have now discovered a tailwind,” he mentioned.
The spherical was led by Chicago-based TechNexus Enterprise Collaborative. Earlier backers embody Craft Ventures, Goldcrest Capital, Fowl CEO Travis VanderZanden and former Ford X President Sunny Madra. Cabana didn’t present an up to date valuation, however Kubly mentioned that it has elevated since its final funding spherical in 2021.