YouTrip Raises $25 Million for a Digital Wallet: 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.

This week travel startups announced more than $611 million in funding.

GetYourGuide, a tours and attractions booking agency, raised a $484 million Series E funding round, led by the SoftBank Vision Fund.
Away, a luggage and travel accessories retailer, raised $100 million, led by Wellington Management.

Here were some other fundings announced this week:

>>YouTrip, a multi-currency travel wallet that links with pre-paid cards run by bank network MasterCard, has raised $25.5 million in pre-Series A funding.

Insignia Ventures Partners participated in the round.

YouTrip, founded in Hong Kong, debuted its product in Singapore in August 2018. The digital wallet allows users to pay for goods overseas in more than 150 currencies with no hidden fees and, it claims, at wholesale exchange rates. Several companies have attempted to make overseas purchases cheaper and easier for travelers, including Airwallex, although Airwallex has since pivoted to a different, non-travel financial technology focus.

YouTrip, which has more than 70 workers, has processed more than 1 million transactions, said co-founder and CEO Caecilia Chu.

YouTrip claimed it has made technical advances that allow it to hedge for sudden shifts in exchange rates and wring inefficiencies out of the system, enabling it to charge lower fees than legacy financial providers. It earns commissions from merchants who are partners with MasterCard’s bank network.

>>Anyplace, a marketplace for serviced apartments, extended stay hotels, short-term rentals, and co-living companies, raised a $2.5 million seed round.

UpHonest, FundersClub, and East Ventures, participated.

Anyplace has a roster of about 50 properties in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Miami, Houston, Sacramento, Montreal, and Guadalajara that it offers to people with temporary housing needs, such as workers relocating briefly or students doing study abroad programs.

The San Francisco based company has raised $3 million in total since its founding in 2017. It has 13 full-time employees.

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.