Tiny houses and places to sleep in nature are trendy. Nevertheless, the Hamburg provider Sleeperoo slipped into insolvency. Now there is a turning point.
Spend the night on an alpaca farm in Münsterland or in a shopping center: the provider Sleeperoo wooed adventurous customers with mobile sleeping cubes that can basically be set up anywhere. At the beginning of the year, however, the startup from Hamburg got into financial difficulties.
Now the insolvency administrator Finn Peters told Gründerszene: “Despite weeks of intensive efforts, we have not been able to convince an investor to take over Sleeperoo as a whole.” However, according to Peters, there have been interested parties for essential assets. “Negotiations on this will be concluded shortly. We cannot currently say which concept the potential buyers will pursue.”
New owner wants to continue concept and brand
According to information from Gründerszene, an interested party is planning to continue the Sleeperoo concept. In addition to sleeping cubes, the booking software and the brand are also to be taken over, but not the last 13 employees of the start-up.
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Sleeperoo was founded in 2017 by former travel agent Karen Löhnert. According to her own statements, she had been interested in overnight stays for a long time, but was not satisfied with the changing quality standards. Their idea: a uniform range of accommodation comparable to that of a hotel chain. During the warm months, Löhnert set up the tent-like sleeping capsules with partners on alpaca farms, wineries or piers – without their own toilet or kitchenette. For the winter season, she cooperates with indoor playgrounds and shopping centers.
Known from “The Lion’s Den”
The offer met with demand, probably also in the wake of the hype surrounding so-called tiny houses. In 2021, Sleeperoo generated around 400,000 euros in sales, almost twice as much as in the previous year. The bottom line was a minus of around 400,000 euros. The company finances itself through income from the bookings. A night in the Sleeperoo costs at least 130 euros.
Sleeperoo has been on the market since 2018. In the same year, Sleeperoo convinced investor Dagmar Wöhrl in the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen”. A few months later, however, she returned her shares to the founder – according to Sleeperoo, because both parties did not agree on the future of the business model. After that, the small North German private equity firm UEBF secured shares in Sleeperoo. In addition, the management was involved in the company.