UK: ‘Airbnb for gardens’ AllotMe raises £250,000
AllotMe’s online platform pairs anybody with available outdoor space with people seeking somewhere to grow, allowing them to rent plots.
By Brian Donnelly
@BrianDonnellyHT
Herald Scotland
June 2, 2022
Excerpt:
Since launch in May last year, the urban garden marketplace – described as “Airbnb for gardens” – has attracted more than 100 hosts listing underutilised space to grow fruit and vegetables across the UK.
Some have been successfully renting space from hosts for more than a year.
AllotMe is now preparing to launch AllotMents 2.0 – a summer campaign to recruit hosts to the site and ramp up the available space for rent.
The campaign will coincide with a range of improvements to the platform, the firm said.
The business, which claims to be the first of its kind, aims to increase the number of plots listed by more than 2,000% over the next 18 months.
The £250,000 investment – which included £120,000 from venture capital outfit QVentures and more than £50,000 from the HBAN Angel Network in Northern Ireland – will be used to “significantly enhance the platform”.
AllotMe has appointed in-house software engineer Nandan Grover, a former software lead at French tech firm Dassault Systèmes, to drive the project.
