In the past two decades, we have seen staggering technological changes in all aspects. Over the years, numerous industries and countless travel startups around the globe tried to take advantage of this trend and pursued new and exciting business models.
Having said that, opportunity alone does not ensure success, but understanding customers, market, technologies and competition do. Tourlane, a booking platform for multi-day tours from Germany is one such startup.
Raises €42M funding
Recently Tourlane has raised €42 million within six months of its previous investment. The round was led by existing investors Sequoia and Spark Capital who also led the recent Series B. Previous investors DN Capital and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures also reaffirm confidence in Tourlane. This Series C funding provides Tourlane with additional capital to support further international expansion plans, hiring and product development. So far, Tourlane has raised a total of €71.6M in funding over 4 rounds. At present, the company employs more than 200 people.
From Safaris in Tanzania to diving in Galápagos.
Founded by Julian Stiefel and Julian Weselek in 2016, this Berlin-based travel startup works directly with service providers and offers customers flights, accommodations, tours, activities, and transfer options all in one place.
Connect travelers with handpicked travel specialists
Tourlane saves time when coordinating multiple bookings from different vendors or working with offline travel agents. Furthermore, this platform provides real-time pricing, availability, instant trip visualisation, and drag-and-drop adjustments to make multi-day trip planning easy.
Birth of Tourlane
In an attempt to help travelers discover their next adventure, Julian Stiefel and Julian Weselek founded Tourlane with a vision to make travel both unique and human by enabling travelers to discover once-in-a-lifetime adventures and experiences that are tailor-made.
Previously, Julian Stiefel took on a key role in Airbnb’s marketing team after the company acquired his travel startup back in 2011. On the other hand, Julian Weselek worked for German tech giant Rocket Internet where he helped build several successful internet startups.
Tourlane’s investors!
After a first investment round from Airbnb, HomeToGo, GetYourGuide and Holtzbrinck Ventures in 2017, the Series A financing round brought Spark Capital, DN Capital and Qunar founder Fritz Demopoulos on board. In 2018 Tourlane closed a Series B funding round which was led by the renowned venture capital firm Sequoia Capital with participation from existing investors.
All said and done, the idea of ‘traveling as a way of life’ is widely gaining popularity and acceptance across the globe. Realizing the market potential this travel startup has jumped into the fight to emerge as the most promising in a market untapped.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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