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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/31\/getyourguide-books-194m-at-a-2b-valuation-with-travel-experiences-back-in-business\/<\/a><\/br> The tourist industry is bouncing back after a rough couple of pandemic-stressed years, and in the case of some tourism and travel startups, its momentum is coming in at a pace that\u2019s defying even the current market climate.<\/p>\n Today, GetYourGuide<\/a> \u2014 a Berlin-based startup that has built a marketplace for finding and booking tourist, travel and other experiences, with some 75,000 experiences from 16,000 providers listed at any given time \u2014 is announcing that it has raised $194 million.<\/p>\n It will be using the funds in three basic areas: First, to continue expanding into new markets. Second, to add more hikes, tours and other experiential events like meeting Gianni, the key holder for the whole of the Vatican, at 6 am and turning on all the lights as you walk through the halls with him. And third, to bring in more AI and other technology to improve discovery and personalization on the platform.<\/p>\n The money is coming in the form of an $85 million Series F and a revolving credit facility of $109 million. Blue Pool Capital led the equity round with KKR and Temasek also participating, while UniCredit led the credit facility with participation from BNP Paribas, Citibank and KfW.<\/p>\n The round values GetYourGuide at $2 billion \u2014 double the startup\u2019s valuation compared to its previous round, a monster $484 million Series E in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n The funding, and valuation boost, stand out in the current market because consumer-oriented startups have been finding it extremely challenging to raise money; and all startups, not just consumer, are seeing a lot of pressure on their valuations \u2014 two trends that GYG has just bucked. (And it\u2019s not the only travel startup making those waves: just yesterday Hostaway<\/a> announced a $175 million raise.)<\/p>\n But the news also represents a pretty major turnaround for GetYourGuide itself.<\/p>\n Pre-COVID, Berlin\u2019s GetYourGuide was one of the hottest startups in Europe, built on a very simple idea: It took one of the most old-fashioned and outdated aspects of tourism \u2014 guided tours \u2014 and reinvented them as \u201cexperiences\u201d to meet the needs, interests and Instagrammable requirements of a new wave of younger consumers, all discoverable and bookable using everyone\u2019s favorite device, the smartphone.<\/p>\n The idea took off like a rocket \u2014 a successfully launched one. Bookings went up, investors flocked to the startup, it moved into very impressive digs in the east of Berlin and people started to think that maybe it wasn\u2019t just Airbnb that could within a decade upend how we think about travel.<\/p>\n Then COVID-19 happened.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went from high-flying to zero revenues \u2014 zero revenues for multiple quarters,\u201d CEO and co-founder Johannes Reck recalled. \u201cA lot of startups struggled at that time, but we were one of the worst hit. Of course, no one wanted to go on tours with other people\u201d \u2014 which was effectively the only product that GYG offered. \u201cIt was really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Reck took a bold bet at that time: He decided that consumer behavior, the interest in experiences that had been driving business for the startup, wouldn\u2019t change; it would likely just pause under pandemic circumstances.<\/p>\n \u201cI was always convinced that we would go back and that our market would come out better than it was even pre-pandemic. First it\u2019s because people crave experiences. COVID was a big setback but not a fork in the road where consumer behavior would be different,\u201d he said. \u201cSecond, I was very sure travel would return, and travelers would not want to sit in hotel rooms for the next century.\u201d<\/p>\n The company\u2019s $484 million round led by SoftBank closed just months before COVID-19 hit, so GYG had plenty of cash. But on top of that it secured a $133 million convertible note<\/a>, in case things got really hairy. It also laid off 20% of its staff, all told, but then it held tight. \u201cWe didn\u2019t cut deep,\u201d Reck said. \u201cWe stopped and waited for 8-10 months to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n It took a bit longer \u2014 around two years in fact \u2014 but eventually things started to pick back up. GYG never did exercise the convertible note, Reck said.<\/p>\n The end of 2022, with the Omicron wave of COVID-19 subsiding, was the turning point, he recalled, with everything \u201cjust starting to fall back in place.\u201d By Q1 of 2023, the startup was seeing booking volumes that were four times bigger than its volumes in Q1 in 2019 (the last comparable year of non-COVID normalcy). It\u2019s not speaking specific numbers on volumes but it had about 25-30 million tickets sold on its app between 2019 and 2020; four times that would be 100-120 million.<\/p>\n Reck added that now it\u2019s looking like the company is \u201con the route to profitability\u201d in many of its major markets.<\/p>\n Of course, that route, unlike a GYG tour, doesn\u2019t have a well-defined starting or end point, nor estimated time of arrival. But it seems to be one that investors are happy to book and follow regardless.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is immense opportunity in the digitization of the experiences industry, and we believe GetYourGuide\u2019s global leadership and market-leading customer-centricity in the category stems from its deep expertise in this complex space,\u201d said Oliver Weisberg, CEO of Blue Pool Capital, in a statement. \u201cWe believe GetYourGuide is uniquely positioned to be the global leader in the category; we are pleased to lead the equity financing given the strength of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the future for GYG has a couple of interesting technology and business variables at play.<\/p>\n Reck said that GYG remains very committed to the idea of selling human-led group tours. That means no self-guided tours, no virtual tours, and no generative-AI created tours are on its roadmap today.<\/p>\n Reck calls the group tour, devised and led by an actual person, \u201cthe core product\u201d of GYG. \u201cOur mission just doesn\u2019t happen if you are glued to your smartphone,\u201d he said. He speaks not just from opinion but experience: \u201cWe\u2019ve tested so many alternative formats, including virtual experiences,\u201d Reck said. \u201cThey all flopped.\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not to say that there aren\u2019t some big opportunities for using AI in the business. Reck said.<\/p>\n
\nGetYourGuide books $194M at a $2B valuation with travel experiences back in business<\/br>
\n2023-06-01 22:32:50<\/br><\/p>\n