Travel Startups Still Managed to Raise $1.4 Billion During One Turbulent Quarter
Photo Credit: Traveloka's head office in Jakarta. Source: Traveloka. Traveloka
Skift Take
Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, once said that it's "only when the tide goes out that you learn who's been swimming naked." Some of the 57 travel startups worldwide that raised funding in the first months of the year may be about to reveal all.
Investors poured $1.4 billion of equity fundraising across 57 travel startups during the first three months of the year, according to Skift's reporting. The deals came despite the world coming to terms with the coronavirus pandemic during the period.
Oyo Hotels & Homes raised the largest sum in the quarter, with $807 million in Series F funding from RA Hospitality and a unit of SoftBank Vision Fund.
The fundraising total excludes startups such as Lilium, which is building an air taxi service and making vertical take-off and landing aircraft, as companies like that are better known as aviation or mobility businesses.
The first quarter results also reflected deals that had already been in the works before the coronavirus pandemic went global. The second-largest round of the period was an $82 million Series C raised by Cloudbeds, a maker of enterprise software for hotel and hostel management. The round represented settlements after more than a year of negotiations, CEO Adam H
