VIVLA: Re-underwriting our conviction

We are very happy to share that Samaipata is backing VIVLA again, this time in their €8M equity round, alongside a great group of investors. Our first investment in VIVLA dates back to 2022, and as the company has grown and evolved significantly our conviction in the opportunity and team has only deepened. 

Back when we invested for the first time, we shared our main beliefs around the investment. In hindsight, our beliefs have by and large stood the test of time but our thesis has also matured as we have learned more about the business alongside the founding team.

Launching and backing a business is a fascinating journey that starts on the back of some intuitions and hypotheses. These naturally morph and mature as you map the terrain, iterate and build a much more nuanced understanding of the business. When this process reinforces your conviction on the business you might be up to something.

Through this fundraising we are re-underwriting our conviction in VIVLA and we wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on this journey.

VIVLA is redefining holiday hospitality through a disruptive model of fractional ownership in branded residences. By blending premium real estate with fully managed, flexible access, VIVLA transforms not just vacations — but the way people connect with their second home. The result: more weeks, more joy, and a more social lifestyle. 

Underwriting our conviction: Intuitions and hypotheses

Second-homes were a large market in the epicentre of a lifestyle shift

We believed that second homes were becoming more than holiday assets, they were turning into lifestyle infrastructure for remote-first knowledge workers. This shift, accelerated by the pandemic, was opening up a massive opportunity at the intersection of mobility, flexibility and quality of life. The macro tailwinds were there and we expected them to compound. 

Fractional ownership was finally ready for prime time

We saw fractional ownership as a category on the brink of breakout. Lifestyle and tech trends had finally converged to make the model viable. The emergence of low-touch ownership preferences, paired with improved operational infrastructure and user experience, pointed to a model with strong product-market resonance and upside as an asset-light real estate play. 

VIVLA’s team and strategy were best positioned to win

From day one, VIVLA aimed at building the operating system for fractional real estate. A market-maker for primary shares, a platform for secondary liquidity, and an asset manager ensuring quality and consistency at scale. It was  a complex model - legally, financially, and operationally - which required exceptional execution and a founding team with a rare mix of vision, operational excellence, and trustworthiness. We saw exactly that in Carlos Gómez and Carlos Floria. 

Re-underwriting our conviction: Vivla’s “7 Powers” bid

Just three years after our initial investment, VIVLA has delivered on every front. The company has scaled to over €80 million in assets under management, a curated portfolio of 60 premium properties across Spain’s top second-home destinations, and a vibrant community of 350 owner families. This has been achieved with an efficient use of capital, anchored in the emergence of a strong underlying business. 

Today, we have a more nuanced understanding of the business in the real world. VIVLA’s bid to build a solid, enduring company is solidifying, and while it is still early, we believe there is meaningful evidence that its foundations are growing stronger. As we re-underwrite our conviction in a more mature company, we do so through the lens of Hamilton Helmer’s 7 Powers framework - not as a retrospective justification, but as a forward-looking, structured hypothesis on where sustainable advantage could emerge. These are still hypotheses, not facts. But they are grounded in real performance, real behaviour, and a growing track record. 

1) Network effects

VIVLA is already exploiting network effects, firstly as a marketplace rapidly matching supply with demand (properties and owners) and demand with demand (co-owners). But it is also showing early signs of local network effects between owners across properties, and saturating nodes of supply acquisition and operational efficiency with service providers. These dynamics are not yet systemic across the platform, but they are emerging in repeatable patterns at the node level - offering a playbook for future saturation and liquidity clustering. 

2) Economies of scale

Volume is translating into efficiency across the board. From improved financing terms to faster inventory turnover and operational leverage in go-to-market execution, VIVLA is building compounding scale advantages. Cost of financing has dropped, CAC is increasingly predictable, and the company’s P&L shows clear signals of expanding margins as scale builds. 

3) Brand

Trust is becoming a competitive asset. In a category where ticket size is high and emotional stakes are even higher, brand becomes a moat. VIVLA is carving out a position as the reference for quality, transparency, and peace of mind in fractional ownership - reducing friction in acquisition and increasing loyalty over time. This trust and brand validation has paved the way for “member gets member” to become the company’s most valuable acquisition channel.

4) Counter-positioning

Incumbents are structurally unable to compete. Traditional real-estate players (brokers, developers, platforms) are either uninterested or unequipped to deliver fractional models at scale. VIVLA’s integrated approach, tech-first DNA, and customer experience standards set it apart in a way incumbents cannot easily replicate. 

5) Switching costs

VIVLA is deeply embedded into the property management of its portfolio. As VIVLA adds secondary market liquidity, and property management features, it moves from a transaction platform to a full-stack, lasting, ownership experience. That ecosystem effect increases user stickiness and reduces the appeal of alternatives. 

6) Cornered resources

VIVLA is securing privileged access to people, product, and capital. The founding team has proven resilience and focus. Supply-side relationships in top-tier Spanish destinations are strengthening. Financing partners are aligned and embedded. These are not easily replicable assets and they are accruing value with scale. 

7) Process power

Operational excellence is turning VIVLA’s operational challenges into a moat. What started as a handcrafted, founder-led operation has become a scalable process engine - from sourcing to sales to customer success. Efficiency gains are now visible in both topline and bottomline metrics, laying the foundation for a more predictable, profitable business. 

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We’re incredibly proud to continue backing VIVLA as it scales from a bold Southern European vision to a category-defining platform with global reach.

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