The Best-Funded Travel Startups Through the End of 2019
Photo Credit: This November 17, 2016, photo shows Airbnb Founders, from left to right, Nathan Blecharczyk (now chief strategy officer and chairman of Airbnb China), Joe Gebbia (now head of product development team Samara), and CEO Brian Chesky speak onstage at the Airbnb Open event in Los Angeles. Airbnb is the best-funded travel startup in the world as of late 2019. Airbnb Newsroom / Mike Windle
Skift Take
The travel industry has at least 10 young private companies that have each raised more than $500 million so far while continuing to seek an exit for their investors. That's a remarkable boom in travel startups compared with a decade ago.
In 2019, 10 travel startups — named below — brought their total funding to $500 million or more. Compare that with a decade ago: No travel startup seeking funds in 2009 had raised that much money.
Most of today's best-funded startups aren't profitable. So it's likely that more travel industry people now work for money-losing companies than have at any point since the dot-com bubble burst around 2001.
What changed in fundraising over the decade? Record low inflation made it cheaper for investors to borrow funds, while bull markets drove up the prices of traditional assets and made alternative opportunities more appealing.
Another factor was that many investors came to believe that the best-funded startups will win by simply outspending their rivals and achieving a dominant market position.
Yet betting on any of these so-called unicorns — or companies with a value of at least $1 billion — isn't for the faint of heart.
Exhibit A: Deem, a corporate travel startup, ha
