GetYourGuide has raised $75 million in Series D which it says is the largest ever raised in the tours and activities segment.
The round is led by Battery Ventures, a new investor for the company, with exiting investors KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Europe, Sunstone Capital and Nokia Growth Partners also participating.
As part of the investment from Battery, general partner Itzik Parnafes joins the board of GetYourGuide.
According to a statement these latest funds will go towards international expansion and technology. As part of its technology development the company says it plans to "apply AI and machine learning" by way of offering up personalised recommendations.
The statement says the company, founded in 2010 [startup pitch here], recently "crossed the threshold of 10 million tickets booked, with nearly half of those booked in 2017 alone."
Tours and activities is estimated to be worth $135 billion with expectations that it will reach more than $183 billion by 2020.
GetYourGuide CEO Johannes Reck says:
“We are experiencing explosive growth this year.
“It’s our goal to significantly disrupt the in-destination travel experience in the years ahead, and the financing we’ve raised from both new and existing investors represents a vote of confidence in our progress toward capturing the massive market opportunity before us.”
Almost two years ago, GetYourGuide raised $50 million in funding while at the same time details of a deal with Booking.com were revealed.
The tours and activities segment is getting a lot of attention from the investment community with Asia-based Klook announcing $60 million in funding a week ago.
Consolidation is also happening in the space with Ctrip announcing its acquisition of Trip.com (formerly Gogobot) this week.
Airlines slow to see attractions as ancillary products
Image by Stephen Leonardi via Unsplash