Forbes: Jay-Z And Will Smith Help Airbnb Of Glamping Take Off Worldwide

Picture this. Miles away is a tiny house nestled in the woods on a lake with farm fresh eggs in the kitchen awaiting your arrival. There are llamas to pet, berries to pick, and fireflies dancing at dusk. At bedtime, you can stargaze into the infinite dark sky. The vibe is chill and for $50 a night you can help farmers, ranchers and vinters find a sustainable way to conserve their land and protect the environment.

Such a place exists and finding it has been made possible by a handful of celebrities, A-list venture capitalists, a Shark Tank winner, an internet pioneer, and a social impact filmmaker turned self-taught computer programmer who in 2013 had a dream of creating a comprehensive database of campgrounds that could be mined by algorithms to enable campers to find the perfect surf spot.

(Photo credit: Evan Kubena, Hipcamp)

Today Hipcamp, the Airbnb of glamping, has 420,000 listings of tiny houses, RVs, yurts and campsites, and has gone global with the acquisition of Youcamp Australia and expansion into Canada. An important milestone for the Series B startup backed by Will Smith’s Dreamers Fund, Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures Partners, Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media, Shark Tank winner Katherine Krug, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Hotel Tonight co-founder Sam Shank, Tripit co-founder Gregg Brockway, Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz, Sarah Tavel of Benchmark, Tripp Jones of August Capital, and Dave Morin of Slow Ventures.

Competitors include Benedict Cumberbatch-backed Tentrr, GlampingHub and Glamping.com, which are a magnitude smaller than Hipcamp and just as likely to be seen as potential acquisition targets.

Check out the full article from Forbes here.