Investors Bet More Than $210 Million on Sector: 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 $212 million in funding.

>>TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based travel booker and management company, has closed a $160 million funding round. That nearly doubles its previous rounds combined since it was founded in 2015. Skift’s Corporate Travel Editor Matt Parsons had the story: TravelPerk Will Wade Even Further Into U.S. Territory With $160 Million Funding Boost.

>>Guesty, a maker of software for for managers of short-term rentals, has raised $50 million in a Series D round of funding. Apax Digital Fund led the round in the startup, with AMI Opportunities Fund and others also taking part.

The Tel Aviv-based startup has raised $110 million since it participated in the Y Combinator startup accelerator. It is the best-funded of its peer set. See Skift’s story on the funding,here, and profile of the company and its recent acquisition of MyVR, here.

>>Staymyway, a maker of contactless technology for hotels, has received an injection of about $1.45 million (€1.2 million).

The Spanish company had a major win in February when French giant Accor hired it to be a provider of mobile key technology to the brand. Staymyway expects to cover 50,000 rooms by 2021 and to expand to at least half of the 800,000 rooms in the Accor network worldwide over the next five years.

StayMyWay’s technology lets hotel guests gain access to their rooms without stopping at the front desk. Guests take a picture of themselves and their passport or another identification document using their smartphone.

The company uses technology to verify the guest’s identity and issue a key to a room. It says its technology is compatible with most locks used by hoteliers. Lodging providers acquire a kit that updates the mobile key lock. The startup charges a monthly fee per room.

StayMyWay launched in Murcia, Spain, in 2014.

>>TripAbrood, a startup focused on helping families book travel, has raised about $1.3 million (nearly £1 million) in seed funding from angel investors since its launch in September 2020.

The UK company was founded in 2019 by Alexa-Maria Rathbone Barker, formerly European head of analytics for Bloomberg, and Ketan Anand, formerly engineering lead at Lloyds Banking Group. Its backers include former c-suite executives from Barclays, American Express, Expedia, and Hertz.

The startup’s family travel assistant, Skye, strives to guide users through the discovery and booking phases efficiently through a logical process and by fetching relevant information, the company said.

>>Bojue Photography, which provides photographers on demand at tourist destinations primarily for couples getting married, has received an undisclosed round of investment from the Xiamen Consumption Fund, part of China Resources, ChinaTravelNews reported.

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. These fundraising rounds can assist in 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.