TourRadar Receives $50 Million for Multi-Day Tour Sales: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Travel Startup Funding This Week

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.

The total funding publicized this week was more than $70 million.

>>TourRadar, an online agency for multi-day activities, such as river cruises and safaris, has received $50 million in a Series C funding round.

TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) led the round. Erik Blachford, ex-CEO of Expedia, will join TourRadar’s supervisory board.

More than 600 operators, such as G Adventures, Contiki, Collette, Intrepid Travel, Topdeck Travel, Trafalgar, and Uniworld, sell more than 25,000 tours via TourRadar. The Vienna, Austria-based company intends to hire employees and invest in its technology.

Founded in 2009, TourRadar now believes the addressable market for multiday tours is about $55 billion worldwide.

>>Chowbotics, which builds robots for food service, has closed a $16 milllion Series A round of funding.

Foundry Group and Techstars led the funding. The startup previously raised $1.3 million in seed financing and was founded in Redwood City, California, in 2014.

As Skift Table has reported, the startup’s main product is Sally the Salad Robot.

Quick-serve restaurants are its main customers. But the company also sells the product to hotels and airports. Via a touchscreen user interface, Sally makes salads in approximately one minute with any combination of up to 22 ingredients.

>>Triptease, a technology startup that helps hotels get more direct bookings, has raised an additional $4 million in funding.

BGF and Notion Capital led the investment, which took the total amount the London-based startup has raised since last year to $13 million. It has raised $23 million since its founding in 2012.

The company’s consumer-facing, price-comparison tool, booking engine, and chatbot for hotel websites aim to encourage more visitors to book directly.

Triptease, which has 130 full-time employees, has opened an office in Singapore and will use the additional funding to drive Asian expansion.

Have an aviation-themed startup? Take it to the next level by participating in the Air Pitch Startup Competition 2018.

Skift Cheat Sheet:
We define a startup as a company formed to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet that definition. The rare ones that do often attract venture capital. Their funding rounds come in waves.

Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.

Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.

Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster, or scale up. These fundraising rounds can assist with recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.

Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.

Series D, E and beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.

Check out our previous startup funding roundups, here. And also: Skift’s Top Travel Startups to Watch 2018.