Skift Take

We are headed into a winter for travel startups. But travel won't be gone forever. And history teaches us that startups are often the first to pinpoint our industry’s new direction as we exit a crisis.

It’s going to be a tough winter for travel startups. Many will struggle and some will go under. But travel startups will not disappear. And in fact, successful new businesses will be created. Don’t forget that some of the most respected startups in travel today, like Airbnb, were founded in the depths of the global financial crisis.

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Last year was a record one for venture capital investments in travel, with $9.2 billion of new capital committed to our industry. Under normal circumstances, we might expect that travel could continue to build on that momentum and go from record to record. That seems impossible now.

But it doesn’t mean there are not opportunities out there. They just look different than what we thought they did a few weeks ago. And there are still venture capitalists out there with cash to put to work after record levels of fundraising in 2019.

Given the nature of events, we have abridged this report, cutting much of the forward-looking commentary this annual report typically delivers. Rather, we have chosen to focus primarily on delivering the core data that could guide future investment once we are out of this crisis. As a result, we can make this report available at the discounted price of $195.

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What You’ll Learn from This Report:

  • Why invest in travel.
  • The size of the travel startup financing market, 2011–2019.
  • Travel’s share of venture capital funding.
  • Travel startup funding breakdown by stage.
  • Regional trends in travel venture capital.
  • Highlights of which sub-sectors are attracting the most investor attention.

Subscribe to Skift Research Reports

This is the latest in a series of monthly reports aimed at analyzing the fault lines of disruption in travel. These reports are intended for the busy travel industry decision-maker. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. Over 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep dives on key travel brands. Reports are available online in a responsive design format, or you can also buy each report à la carte at a higher price.

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Tags: funding, skift research, startups, travel startups, venture capital

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