Culture Trip, a travel inspiration startup has announced $80M in Series B funding.
The round was led by PPF Group and according to a statement, is being used to expand the business with the senior team already boosted with a number of key appointments.
Mike Fox joins as chief marketing officer and will focus on increasing the company's audience and has already boosted the senior team.
Joining as CMO, Mike Fox will oversee the company’s global marketing division with a focus on audience. He was previously at Facebook.
Meanwhile, Dick Soule joins as chief revenue officer and is responsible for increasing the service's monetisation initiatives as well as diversifying them. Soule previously worked in AR and VR but was also head of global sales at YouTube in the past.
In addition to expanding the senior team, there are also plans to boost engineering and creative teams to further help increase the audience.
Culture Trip founder Dr. Kris Naudts says:
“With this game-changing investment, Culture Trip is focused on improving the current user experience and value proposition, with the aim of building a leading, global consumer brand that will disrupt the media and travel industries through its creative content and tech.”
The company has also unveiled a series of new features including wish lists, integrated Google maps and planning tools. A brand refresh has also been launched.
Culture Trip also recently announced plans to build an online travel division to help hotels and hostels and experience providers access its Millennial audience.
The company says the service will launch this summer. A statement says:
"Unlike traditional Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), Culture Trip’s new online travel service will leverage the brand’s inspirational stories and utility content, powered by contributors in more than 300 locations, to drive online transactions for accommodations and experience providers."
Culture Trip received has received about $102 million in funding with PPF also investing $20 million in its Series A in late 2016.