Athens-based Welcome Pickups, a global travel transportation startup, announced on Monday that it has raised €5.3M in a fresh round of funding. The company says it survived the COVID pandemic by optimising operations and achieving “remarkable” growth and financial results in 2022.
The investment came from existing investors including Market One Capital, Flashpoint, and Venture Friends.
Personalised transportation designed for travel
Founded in 2015 by Alexandros Trimis and Savvas Georgiou, Welcome Pickups claims to redefine the way people travel by offering personalised and wholesome travel experiences from the moment they start planning their trip until the moment they return home.
The global transportation company operates in 100 destinations across 50 countries, partnering with over 2000 hotels, vacation rentals, airlines, and other travel partners. It serves over 1 million passengers every year.
For hotels, Welcome Pickups offers solutions to automate the transportation of visitors and generate an extra stream of income. Additionally, it gathers useful information about visitors to further enhance the client experience. The company also offers an online analytics dashboard with a “live” view of the day’s bookings and information on the transfer reservations.
Welcome Pickups also has a fully automated and customised transfer service for vacation rentals that operates just like its transfer solution for hotels.
Recent growth
The Greece-based company claims that it witnessed ‘outstanding’ growth and financial results in 2022, including a 50 per cent growth rate and the introduction of over 30 new locations. All of this was done while increasing profitability and providing services to over 1 million travellers.
According to the company, it focused on simplifying procedures and boosting product-driven automation throughout its operations, which led to an 8-fold reduction in the amount of human touch per booking. Welcome Pickups also reports being successful for the past 18 months, obtaining a positive EBITDA rating.
Capital utilisation
Welcome Pickups’ CEO, Alex Trimis, says, “The additional funding will be used to accelerate the company’s geographical reach with a goal to double its destination network, focusing strongly on launching new destinations in North and South America”.
Trimis adds that “a portion of the funds will also go to further improving customer experience and developing new products to support the company’s mission of creating a complete, personalised, and inclusive in-destination travel experience for all.”
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