Online Travel Agency Kiwi Has a Plan to Fight the Giants
Photo Credit: Shown here is a conference room in the 92,600 square feet headquarters for online travel agency Kiwi in Brno, Czech Republic. The company is rumored to be closing a funding round. Kiwi
Skift Take
Kiwi has grown fast without venture capital or marketing gimmicks. The online travel agency's story shows what it takes for a startup to scale today. Its story also reveals the long shadows cast by the mighty travel conglomerates.
The largest online travel multinationals — Booking Holdings, Ctrip Group, Expedia Group, and TripAdvisor — are too powerful. They swallow all the marketing and financial oxygen, making it difficult for young startups to compete and thrive. Or so the conventional wisdom goes.
A possible exception may prove the rule: Kiwi.com, a travel tech startup based in Brno in the Czech Republic. This online travel agency processed $925 million in gross bookings last year.
For 2018, the company forecasts it will book revenue of about $200 million, based on its run rate thus far. It expects it "will way exceed" the value of plane tickets it sold last year, by at least 25 percent year-over-year. About a quarter of its sales will come from U.S.-based ticket buyers.
Yet Kiwi has said it has raised only about $1.7 million, or €1.5 million, in funding.
One reason: Venture firms shy away from funding startups that are going up directly against the large tech incumbents on product — or r
