Canada-based mobile-first travel marketplace Hopper completed a $175m Series G financing as it looks to capitalise on the growing demand for its travel app.
The round was led by GPI Capital with participation from Glade Brook Capital, WestCap, Goldman Sachs Growth and Accomplice. The Series G comes only five months after Hopper raised a $170m Series F led by Capital One in March. These new funds bring its total raised to date to nearly $600m, with the company now valued at over $3.5bn.
The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand its business reach and customer support. It also plans to use the funding to scale travel, data science and engineering teams, with the purpose of introducing new product offerings and fueling international expansion. Expansion goals include opening up home rentals and expanding into European and Asian markets.
Led by Frederic Lalonde, CEO and co-founder, Hopper is a mobile-first travel marketplace which leverages data and machine learning to develop FinTech solutions for customers to travel and save money. Through its B2B initiative, Hopper Cloud, the company is syndicating its solutions, infrastructure, and agency content.
Its tools include Cancel for Any Reason, which offers trip protection, and Rebooking Guarantee, which gives travellers the ability to change their plans at a moment’s notice. Hopper’s fintech segment already represents 50% of the company’s revenue.
The company is also launching a booking portal for Capital One cardholders called Capital One Travel, which is planned to debut later this year. It is also working with Amadeus to roll out additional fintech products to any travel provider such as airlines and online travel agencies. The tools are expected to include protection against pricing fluctuations, no-hassle rebooking up to the day of a trip and cross-airline rebooking.
This travel-sector wide technology, known as the Hopper Cloud, is huge for travellers and has impressive upside if it achieves widespread adoption in the industry.
Hopper is hiring an additional 500 employees, of which 300 of them are focused on customer service. The company is actively looking to acquire other teams in travel, data science, or engineering-heavy startups to introduce new product offerings and accelerate international expansion. Hopper recently integrated the teams of Journy and Mowgli, which will accelerate entry into new travel categories such as home rentals and regional expansion to Europe.
After a year of the Covid-19-induced lockdown which put the travel sector on pause, the company’s revenue is on track to grow 330% since last year, with vaccination campaigns worldwide fueling travel and use of Hopper’s products.
To put it simply, Hopper has already doubled its revenue from its last pre-pandemic quarter, with more growth expected. This is because, despite the Delta variant raising concerns in North America and abroad, the company offers flexibility in its services and financial technology tools.
Lalonde said, “The success of our FinTech offerings demonstrates that travellers are willing to pay for flexibility and assurance as they resume travelling again. We feel strongly that our FinTech offerings through Hopper Cloud can help supercharge the travel industry’s recovery by introducing a totally unique revenue stream for other brands. In fact, if all travel distribution channels offered our FinTech, it could increase the total consumer spend for the sector by $200bn annually.”
