Berlin-based GetYourGuide, a platform for discovering and booking travel experiences, announced on Thursday that it has raised $194M (approximately €181.11M) in a Series F equity and credit round of funding.
GetYourGuide says it will use the funds to expand in important regions such as North America and to speed up product innovation for both travellers and experience creators worldwide.
Deal Overview
The $85M fundraising round, which also included KKR and Temasek, was headed by Blue Pool Capital.
UniCredit led the Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) of $109M with participation from BNP Paribas, Citi and KfW.
Oliver Weisberg, CEO of Blue Pool Capital, says, “There is immense opportunity in the digitisation of the experiences industry, and we believe GetYourGuide’s global leadership and market-leading customer-centricity in the category stems from its deep expertise in this complex space.”
“We 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,” added Weisberg.
Capital utilisation
GetYourGuide claims that the funds will accelerate the pace of innovation for travellers and supply partners by developing capabilities of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).
Accelerated product investment will enable supply partners to manage and expand their businesses on the platform with intuitive tools to help travellers to get the most out of their journeys.
According to GetYourGuide, the money arrives just in time for the start of the busiest travel period when the company’s platform is predicted to experience record-breaking engagement.
The big factor in this increased engagement includes Originals by GetYourGuide, the company’s signature co-created tours such as NYC: MoMA Before Hours Tour with Art Expert; London: Coronation Tour; Milan Cathedral & Terraces Exclusive After-Hours Tour; and Turning the Lights on at the Vatican Museums.
Johannes Reck, co-founder of GetYourGuide, says, “In the current market, we view this as a vote of confidence from our investors who believe passionately in unlocking unforgettable experiences for travellers around the globe.”
“We are still early in the transformation of our category and the larger $300B category and the even larger $1.5T experiences market. And our technology is poised to help drive innovation and growth for our partners and customers alike,” adds Reck.
Everything about GetYourGuide
Founded in 2009 by Tao Tao, Martin Sieber, Johannes Reck and Tobias Rein, GetYourGuide is an international online marketplace that offers travellers “unforgettable” travel experiences.
The platform allows visitors to choose and reserve “unique” activities in any destination, including expert-led tours, culinary excursions, workshops in cooking and crafts, skip-the-line tickets, and exclusive bucket-list experiences.
GetYourGuide has over 75,000 activities from more than 16,000 experience creators. Since its inception, the company has sold more than 80 million tour, activity, and attraction tickets to travellers from over 150 countries.
The firm has a staff of more than 700 travel and technology specialists, and 17 local offices throughout the world including the UK and the US.
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