Travel activity platform GetYourGuide has announced its latest funding round – a massive €433 million investment from SoftBank, among others. The online marketplace offers travellers and holidaymakers unique experiences and excursions worldwide.
GetYourGuide Gets Its Funding
After weeks of speculation, the Berlin-based startup finally confirmed its Series E round, led by the Softbank Vision Fund with participation from co-investors Temasek, Lakestar, Korelya Capital and Heartcore Capital, while original investors such as Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank continued their support of the company.
The startup claims to have over 40,000 experiences available in 7,500 destinations around the world on the GetYourGuide inventory. Since its founding in 2009, travelers from over 170 countries have booked more than 20 million activities via the platform.
The GetYourGuide team consists of 475 travel experts and technologists, who provide insight into the best things to do abroad.
Closing the Gap
In the company’s press release, they say that “the investment enables GetYourGuide to accelerate its momentum toward building the world’s leading travel experiences brand.” This will include closing the gap on a lead competitor in the industry – TripAdvisor. Currently, GetYourGuide has an annual revenue of €67 million, compared with €1.43 billion for TripAdvisor.
Another figure that GetYourGuide will be hoping to improve is the monthly web visitors to the site. The startup has an estimated stream of 6.4 million monthly web visitors, which is again dwarfed by the 146 million who browse TripAdvisor every month.
However, this latest investment, which brings GetYourGuide’s total funding to €585 million over 7 financing rounds, represents a huge step in the right direction for the ambitious travel company.