Hopper raises another $175M, will add 500 employees

Five months after a $170 million fundraise, Hopper is doing it again – this time $175 million in Series G financing, bringing its total raised to date to $585 million.

GPI Capital led the round with participation from Glade Brook Capital, WestCap, Goldman Sachs Growth and Accomplice.

Hopper says it will use the funds to accelerate growth – including an aggressive hiring plan that will add 500 people to the current staff of 1,200. The company says 300 of those new employees will work in customer service, an area co-founder and CEO Fred Lalonde has acknowledged was not equipped to handle the flurry of requests that came in during the first several months of the pandemic. 

Since then Hopper has grown its customer support team by 200% and developed automation tools that resolve about 60% of the support requests.

Hopper says it is also “actively looking to acqui-hire other teams in travel, data science or engineering-heavy startups to introduce new product offerings and fuel international expansion.”

In addition to its mobile-only B2C marketplace offering air, accommodations and car rentals along with a suite of trip protection products, in March the company launched Hopper Cloud, a B2B suite of API-enabled solutions such as fintech products, agency content and data science capabilities, with Capital One as its first client. In July, Amadeus announced it will offer some of Hopper Cloud’s products to its clients through the Amadeus Travel Platform. 

“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 $200 billion annually,” Lalonde says.

“We are excited to be partnering with GPI and their distinguished track record of supporting iconic consumer internet companies.”

Hopper says it is on track to see its revenue grow by 330% this year compared to 2020 and has surpassed its pre-pandemic revenue peak from Q1 2020 by more than 100%. 

“Hopper has created a large market opportunity with unique fintech products for the travel industry that applies an entirely differentiated and attractive business model in which we are excited to work with Fred and the leadership team to accelerate the flywheel,” says Khai Ha, managing partner at GPI Capital who will join Hopper’s board.

“The company emerged from a challenging period for the industry, bolstering its technology capabilities, customer service and its opportunity set with a stronger, durable foundation. We are thrilled to be a partner in this category-defining story.”