GetYourGuide's New $484 Million Infusion May Force Consolidation in Travel Experiences

Interest in so-called travel experiences hit a new high on Thursday when GetYourGuide announced it had raised $484 million in new financing led by venture capital giant SoftBank Vision Fund, the largest ever for the travel sector. The nearly $100 billion Vision Fund's stake in the Berlin-based startup is notable beyond its size, raising speculation about potential consolidation in the experiences sector or the possibility of IPOs. Vision Fund in April revealed it had led a $225 million investment in GetYourGuide's Hong Kong-based rival, Klook. None of the companies have revealed valuations. "Both GetYourGuide and Klook have raised sums that would suggest their respective valuations would be north of $2 billion," said Olan O'Sullivan, CEO of Trekksoft, a Swiss-based provider of tour operator booking software. The market leader in attractions sales remains TripAdvisor via its TripAdvisor Experiences and Viator brands. In 2014, TripAdvisor paid about $200 million to acquire Viator. GetYourGuide's and Klook's presumptive valuations are now about ten times as much as that. The Berlin-based-GetYourGuide alone has raised $659.5 million since its founding in 2009. Given their price tags, GetYourGuide and Klook may have little choice but to go public, merge, or both. "The valuation doesn't leave many strategic buyers with sufficiently deep pockets to take them out via an acquisition," said O'Sullivan. GetYourGuide said Thursday that SoftBank is adding investor Ted Fike as a member to its board of directors, though Fike was not involved in the Klook deal. SoftBank Vision Fund is being closely watched right now. While the Vision Fund is run from Tokyo, state funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi provide the biggest shares of its money. Saudi Arabia's alleged assassination last year of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for The Washington Post and Al-Arab News, discouraged some companies, but not these two travel startups, from doing business with the country. A Potential for Mergers and Acquisitions "Klook focuses on different geography and a different product set, and their strategy quite different," said Johannes Reck, the CEO and co-founder. "I don't see significant overlap in the near-term future either," Reck said. "Regardless, it is not a zero-sum game, given th