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Although a stretch, GetYourGuide has frequently likened its desire to ramp up and aggregate the most tours and activities it can for each destination to that of Booking.com. Along with the founder of Qunar, GetYourGuide now has a Booking.com veteran, its former CEO, on board to help in the tour and activities company's expansion efforts.
Tours and activities provider GetYourGuide added $4.5 million in funding in a Series A round, and a lot more credibility with the addition of the former CEOs of Booking.com and Qunar as lead investors and strategic advisors.
The Berlin-based startup, which has $20.5 million in total funding since its founding six years ago, adds Kees Koolen, the former Booking.com CEO, and Fritz Demopoulos, founder and former CEO of China search site Qunar, to the board and can boast that the two led the Series A.
Sunstone Capital, a European-based venture capital firm, also participated in the latest round.
“It’s not about the money, though, but all about the amazing knowledge that Kees and Fritz bring to the table,” Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide’s CEO, tells Skift.
“Both are not marketeers but actually the strongest operators I have ever met,” Reck adds. “They don’t play with magic tricks, but have built huge companies over time.”
GetYourGuide, which plans on using the new funding for mobile and global expansion, now claims to be “the world’s largest platform for tours, attractions and activities, offering 23,700 activities in over 2,250 destinations.”
Read more about the tours and activities industry in our special report “Why the Tours and Activities Market Is More Hype Than the Next Big Thing“
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Tags: funding, getyourguide, tours and activities