The crisis seems to be over: after bookings collapsed, mass layoffs and a convertible loan in the Corona years, the travel platform has collected new money.
The Berlin travel startup Getyourguide sees itself back on the road to success after a near failure in the corona crisis and has secured 194 million US dollars (182 million euros) in another round of financing. According to the company, the cash injection consists on the one hand of an equity financing of 85 million US dollars by the Hong Kong VC Blue Pool Capital with the participation of the existing investors KKR and Temasek from Singapore. In addition, banks BNP Paribas and Citibank, as well as Germany’s KfW, provided a $109 million revolving credit facility – a kind of overdraft facility for companies. According to company circles, the valuation of the start-up rose to almost two billion US dollars.
Getyourguide arranges travel experiences, tour guides or admission tickets for holidaymakers around the world for a commission. The offer currently includes more than 75,000 activities from over 16,000 providers. These include guided tours through the New York Museum of Modern Art, hikes on the Etna volcano and boat trips on the Seine. In 2019 – ten years after it was founded – the start-up had reached a billion dollar valuation thanks to a large investment by the Japanese investor Softbank. However, due to the corona pandemic, Getyourguide got into financial difficulties because the travel business collapsed and the company’s sales had fallen to almost zero.
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Johannes Reck, CEO and co-founder of Getyourguide, offered employees shares in the company instead of a salary so that the sought-after specialists did not have to leave. The founders themselves, along with Reck, Tao Tao, Martin Sieber and Tobias Rein, gave up half of their salary. Nevertheless, the travel startup in autumn 2020 by 90 employees for the first time, around a sixth of the workforce, separate. In total, the startup made around 300 employees redundant. A little later, however, the unicorn managed to secure further financing: at the end of October, Getyourguide collected more than one Convertible loan around 114 million euros a. At that time, the New York VC Searchlight Capital Partners and the existing investors Softbank and KKR participated, among others.
Bookings currently exceed 2019 figures
With the end of the Corona measures in most countries, Getyourguide was able to build on its most successful year to date, 2019, and even surpass the results of that time. According to the company, the booking volume in the first quarter of 2023 is four times higher than in the first quarter of 2019: “The travel experiences category is growing rapidly and is benefiting from a cross-generational change in customer behavior,” it says. According to the company, travelers have booked more than 80 million tours, activities and attraction tickets through Getyourguide since it was founded in 2009. Today the number of employees has increased to 800. The company has not commented on current sales figures since the corona crisis. Compared to the Handelsblatt CEO Reck announced that he intends to reach profitability this year. He now sees himself better and more efficiently positioned than startups that are currently struggling with financing problems.
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The new investment aims to solidify Getyourguide as a leader in the $300 billion travel experience market, the company said. The funding comes in time for the start of the peak travel season, when “record-breaking” user numbers are expected on the platform. The fresh money will be used, among other things, to expand the market presence in key regions such as North America. In addition, the platform for customers and providers is to be improved by using AI tools and large language models in the future. “This round of financing is a milestone for Getyourguide and the beginning of a new chapter,” said Reck. Since the pandemic, Getyourguide has come back as a bigger and better company.