Latin America-focused online travel agency Despegar will use the proceeds from its recent public listing to fund a long-term growth strategy.
The company's 3Q17 financials - the first disclosure since its IPO - saw it increase revenues by 24% during the period year-on-year to $131.5 million.
The filing saw increases in nearly every division of their company between Q3 2016 and the same segment this year:
- There was a YoY increase in transactions of 25%.
- Gross bookings up 32% YoY to $1.1 billion.
- Mobile transactions were up 55% YoY, and currently make up nearly 30% of the company's transactions.
- Packages, hotels, and other travel products made up 55% of the total revenue, up from 49% in the previous year.
- There have been more than 35 million downloads of the Despegar.com app, up 42% YoY.
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Global online travel group Expedia Inc invested in the company to the tune of $250 million in March 2015.
Expedia Inc rival The Priceline Group made a similar investment in fellow South American brand Hotel Urbano during the same period but, ultimately, wrote off the investment.
Dubbed as a "unicorn" of a company - much like Mercado Libre and Globant before it - Despegar's current market value is approximately $1.8 billion, and is the first Argentinian IPO of 2017 (and only the third IPO held by an Argentinian company since 2015).
The company has come a long way from its initial funding rounds, raising $31 million in investment from Sequoia Capital and HM Capital.
CEO Damian Scokin says the IPO "provides financial flexibility and additional resources to continue growing the business".
"We are beginning a new chapter as a public company, and are in the early stages of the development of the online travel industry in Latin America."