Indonesia capsule hotel Bobobox raises $11.5m

Kakao Investments and Mallorca Investments also participated, as did Surge, Sequoia Capital’s early-stage scaling program for India and Southeast Asia. Previous investors include Agaeti Venture Capital, EverHaus Venture Capital, InvestIdea Ventures, and Genesia Ventures. 

Bobobox brands its capsule rooms, or pods, as futuristic “recharging facilities” that can be used for “on-demand sleep” with guests staying for hours or days. There is a strong emphasis on tech-enablement in unit features, which include app-controlled door access, customizable lights, security, bluetooth speakers, a king-size bed, compact working space, and air conditioners.

The company currently operates nine buildings with 572 pods across three Indonesian cities, and recorded an average occupancy rate of 80-90% pre-COVID-19. Occupancy dropped to 50-60% in March. This has been positioned as a relative success given many hotels experienced single-digit occupancies and closures during the same period. The starting price for pods is $10 per night.

A number of operational measures have been implemented due to the pandemic, including a no cancellation fee policy and limits on the number of guests per building. It is also considered more feasible to maintain sanitation standards in pods than in conventional rooms. The company said some locals have relocated to pods to improve their work-from-home experience or to avoid commutes that involve exposure to crowded public facilities.

“COVID-19 has also allowed us to show more use cases of our sleeping pods. With little modifications, we have installed more than 100 pods in hospitals as comfortable shelters for doctors and health workers so they can rest better while remaining close to their patients,” Antonius Bong, Bobobox’s co-founder and president, said in a statement. “We have been getting great feedback from the medics and local governments on these facilities."

The fresh capital will be used to develop new products that will provide additional revenue streams and grow the number of locations. This will involve expanding the technology team and strengthening the manufacturing and operating models. There are plans for a Southeast Asia expansion once the pandemic is over. In the meantime, work will continue on improving hygiene through contactless check-in and check-out processes.

“Crisis, like this pandemic, reveals whether a company has strong fundamentals and a solid business model. It also separates the great among the good,” added Chandra Tjan, a managing partner at Alpha JWC. “With a steady performance we have seen since we first invested in Bobobox back in 2018, we are confident Bobobox not only can weather this storm, but also strive to become the region’s industry leader.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• Alpha JWC Ventures
• Sequoia Capital
• Travel