Kleiner Perkins And Crunchfund Go In On Inspirato’s Latest $17.5M Round

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Crunchfund, Access Venture Partners and (randomly) Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira have gone in on a $17.5 million round of financing for discount luxury vacation startup Inspirato.

Unlike traditional contenders in the high-end vacation home space, Inspirato is able to offer steep discounts on luxury travel destinations by long-term leasing rather than owning its properties.

Because of the money saved by leasing, founders Brent and Brad Handler have forgone a broker’s fee per transaction and instead Inspirato profits off its one time initiation fee of $15,000 and a $2,500 per year maintenance cost.

Apparently there’s a huge market for this among rich people, as my former boss Mike Arrington just joined, and invested, “It’s not for everyone,” he says, “but there are a lot of people out there that see this as an almost magical deal.” The startup has amassed 900 members, with 100 added per month since its launch in January 2011.

If any of you are interested in paying a magnitude less per night for your Puerto Vallarta villa and want an initial $1,000 off, you can sign up with Mike’s affiliate link here — he’ll give you a $1,000 credit back to use on your first trip.

¡Buen viaje!