German travel unicorn Omio raises €84M amid pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has left a significant dent in the travel industry leaving several businesses affected. Now, as the restrictions are lifted and businesses are bouncing back adapting to the new normal, several travel companies are coming up with new strategies to witness growth. The German travel unicorn Omio has secured funding that will be targeted at its growth.

Omio secures €84M funding

Berlin-based multi-modal travel booking platform Omio has just announced that it has secured $100 million (around €84 million) in investments from existing and new investors including Temasek, Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs Asset Management L.P., NEA and Kleiner Perkins. 

Omio will use this investment to pursue its vision of unifying global transport with end-to-end consumer experiences. The investments will be directed at fueling continued organic growth and opportunistic M&A activities while strengthening the company’s unique product and service offering: All transport options (including Rail, Bus, Flights, Ferries, Rental Cars, and Car Sharing) diversified across 37 countries in Europe and Northern America under the Omio brand, combined with a global reach through the planning engine Rome2Rio, which offers search and discovery of transport to and from more than 10 million locations worldwide.

Naren Shaam, Founder and CEO of Omio, said: “Travel is an eternal need and I have no doubt in the comeback of the industry. We have seen a very promising recovery of our business over the past weeks, based on the unique strength of our product which includes all modes of transport across multiple markets. Especially in Germany and France, we are already above 50 percent of our pre-COVID-19 bookings despite marginal marketing spend. However, consumer expectations are changing and the industry will need to evolve to new standards and provide new products with a strong focus on sustainability. We will use the fresh capital to drive this change.”

Jan Kemper, Managing Director and CFO of Omio, said: “When the COVID-19 crisis hit the travel industry, our team made an incredible effort to switch from growth mode into a manage-to-cash organization within weeks. At the same time we started discussions with existing and selected new investors to make sure that we can ramp up our financial head-room for the coming years. Our strong network of financial partners has been key to our ability to manage through this challenging period and will help us quickly return into growth mode. The funding underlines our investors’ confidence in our strategy and the long term potential of our diversified, asset-light business model.” 

Bounced back to growth

Omio has already experienced a stronger bounce-back in travel bookings than expected. This has been driven by a clear change in consumer behavior towards more ground transportation, combined with an accelerating shift towards app usage as consumers prefer to avoid kiosks and long queues. Omio actively supported this shift by continuing to improve and expand its services, for example through the launch of its Open Travel Index (OTI) to help travelers easily understand where they can travel to within Europe and Northern America.

How does it work?

Omio is a travel app and multimodal platform that allows people to find and book trains, buses, flights, ferries, car rentals and car-sharing services in one place. In partnership with over 800 transport operators across Europe, the USA and Canada, Omio is revolutionising the travel planning experience and provides customers with more choice, transparent pricing and easier booking.

Omio lets travelers search for any location including cities, towns and villages, showing the best possible transport combinations while eliminating the need to visit multiple websites or download local apps to plan an entire trip. Initially, it was founded as GoEuro in 2013 and rebranded to become Omio in 2019. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, it has more than 350 employees from 45 different countries. Omio is a brand of GoEuro Corp.

Main image picture credits: Omio