London-based Pollen, the travel and entertainment technology company, announced on Thursday that it has raised $150M (approximately €138.32M) in its Series C round of funding from investors including Kindred, Lansdowne Partners, Northzone, Sienna Capital, Backed and Molton Ventures.
The funds will help Pollen solidify its market position, scale its number of curated travel experiences, and further expand its global reach among the communities it serves.
The round comes on the heels of the company’s recent growth. In 2021, Pollen says it saw a ‘stellar’ growth despite the pandemic as its sales increased more than 300 per cent relative to pre-pandemic levels.
Co-founder and CEO of Pollen, Callum Negus-Fancey, says, “People want personalised travel experiences built around what they are passionate about, and Pollen is at the forefront of this demand; we use our proprietary data and customer insights to build one-of-a-kind travel experiences with the world’s biggest talent and brands in the best destinations. When people look back after 10 years and think about their top five memories, we want them to feel like Pollen was responsible for three of them.”
What does Pollen offer?
Founded in 2014 by brothers Callum and Liam Negus-Fancey, Pollen is a technology company on a mission to build, curate, and deliver the best experiences all over the world. Its team includes ex-Instagram CMO Cliff Hopkins, ex-Pacha Group CMO Gaston Calabresi, ex-Deliveroo Head of Global Customer Services Cathy Doorenbosch, and ex-Klarna VP of Design Kristofer Agermark.
It specialises in the fields of events, travel, festivals, entertainment, experiences, membership, youth culture, and the marketplace. The company partners with brands including Live Nation, C3 Presents, MGM Resorts, and more and also integrates with ticketing providers such as Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Priceline, Stubhub, SeeTickets, Paylogic, and Front Gate Tickets.
Pollen claims to use data and customer insights to create experiences that are exclusive to its platform, and also partners with the biggest music festivals and brands in the world to sell their experiences.
According to Pollen, it has two offerings: Pollen Presents and Pollen+. Pollen Presents curates experiences around your tastes and preferences you can’t find anywhere else. These experiences bring together music, sports, wellness and beyond to enable you and your friends to connect around ‘one-of-a-kind’ itineraries in exciting destinations.
While Pollen+ always gets you more at music festivals and events when you book Pollen. Pollen+ partners with the biggest promoter brands and music festivals, including We Are FSTVL, Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Electric Zoo, and more.
The company has created hundreds of exclusive travel experiences featuring the world’s biggest talent and brands including J Balvin, Justin Bieber, and Duran Duran. It has co-created NEON with J Balvin, a global experience that celebrates Latin culture. J Balvin recently told PEOPLE, “It’s been a really great experience with NEON, J Balvin, and good vibes. We went about a year without seeing [my fans] but now after going through all that, we’re back. Thank you Pollen.”
In addition to entertainment, Pollen offers curated travel itineraries, which also include local activities such as scuba diving, sailing, biking, and more.
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