In Q2 2024, there were few large-scale financing rounds for travel startups and growth companies.
Headlines often cover late-stage investments, including Guesty, who has $130 million in assets In the F round, Cover Genius raised $80 million in its E round, while Canary Technologies Announced $50 million investment Salary increase in June.
Other notable rounds include Fetcherr attracts $90 million Received Series B funding for its airline pricing and inventory control technology, and Ramp secures $150 million in Series D-2 fundingMeanwhile, payment experts Nium receives $50 million in funding In the E round of financing.
Autonomous vehicles and eVTOL development continue to attract investor interest, with Wayve recently securing $1 billion in funding, while Skyports announces $110 million investment Used in the development of vertical take-off and landing airports.
The latest data from PhocusWire sister brand Phocuswright shows that travel funding is moving at a similar pace to 2023, with $3.1 billion raised so far this year.
This quarter’s travel startup funding was dominated by small investments, including EcologyDirecto, Holibob, Stippl and Naya Homes Among companies attracting pre-seed, seed and Series A investments.
A recent article from PhocusWire Top Investors in Travel Tech Last year, we asked some of the most active people in the industry what they were looking for. Executives from prominent investors in the travel industry include Thayer Ventures and Plug and Playand new investors, including Gaingleslisting factors such as unit economics, potential market, competitive advantage and talent as the most important criteria.
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It’s encouraging to see that despite a more cautious approach to funding, investors remain bullish on the future prospects of travel startups and continue to see huge opportunities for value creation in the sector.
Other investors believe that less funding is not necessarily a bad thing. Interviewed in the PhocusWire studio Speaking at the Phocuswright Europe 2024 conference, Gaurav Tuli, partner at F-Prime Capital, said the market was likely to “remain subdued,” adding: “This is really a healthy level for the industry.”
Still in question is whether some previous investors in the travel industry, such as Accel, Lakestar and General Partners, which recently closed their funds, will continue to bet on the sector.
merge
While funding in the sector has declined, M&A activity has increased, with many startups recently attracting large sums of money to acquire smaller companies. For example, Guesty announced Acquisition of Rentals United In May, TravelPerk announced that it had raised $104 million in funding in January. Acquisition of Amtrav and a $135 million line of credit.
The TravelPerk-Amtrav news wasn’t the only interesting business travel deal of the quarter; Acquisition of Direct Travel A plan proposed by Concur co-founder Steve Singh and a group of investors has also drawn interest.
The hotel and accommodation technology space also saw strong M&A activity this quarter, with Mews announcing in March the completion of a $110 million funding round led by Kinnevik. Acquisition of HS3 Hotelsoftware.
at the same time, Lighthouse increases headquarters revenue In its portfolio, Access Group acquired SHR Group and recently Duetto Acquired by GrowthCurve.
Mergers and acquisitions in the aviation technology and ground transportation sectors continued to grow. SITA acquired Materna IPS in May and subsequently Asistim in June. at the same time, Travelier acquires Brazil’s DeonibusPango acquired Gett and Busbud acquires revenue management specialist Ratality.
