Travel booking startup Hopper has a new valuation after a $35 million secondary sale that allowed Hopper employees and some shareholders to sell part of their holdings in the company (all numbers USD).
Hopper confirmed its new valuation to BetaKit, noting that the investors buying into the company through the secondary included new investors, such as Drive Capital and Stack Capital Group, as well as existing investors like Brookfield (Hopper did not disclose other existing investors that took part). The full secondary deal was first reported by Techcrunch.
“We want to be the starting point for all leisure and travel … around the world.”
The secondary buyout and new valuation come directly after Hopper announced last week that it has entered a new travel vertical – home rentals – putting the Montréal startup in direct competition with the likes of Airbnb and Vrbo.
The new valuation also comes less than six months after Hopper raised $175 million in Series G financing led by GPI Capital. At the time, Hopper was reported to have a $3.5 billion valuation. Last year alone, Hopper raised $345 million, with total funding over its lifetime sitting at $583 million. Hopper’s backers include Goldman Sachs Growth, GPI Capital, Inovia Capital, WestCap Group, and Citi Ventures, among others.
As reflected by its expansion into home rentals, Hopper is on a mission to grow its product offerings beyond flight and travel bookings. These days, the company makes most of its revenue from its FinTech products, which it has also turned into a B2B offering for travel company partners. Last fall, Hopper bought Boston-based PlacePass for its destination experience booking product and partnership with Marriott International’s Marriott Bonvoy Tours. With the purchase, Hopper’s B2B offering became the muscle behind Marriott’s activities platform.
Speaking with BetaKit last year, Hopper CEO and co-founder Frederic Lalonde noted his company’s plans to introduce more travel products to Hopper’s repertoire – the short-term home rental business being just the first example of that.
“Our thesis is that over time … people will contract all of their commerce, or nearly all of it, through mobile,” said Lalonde. “They will not start with a Google search. They will launch an app and we want to be the starting point for all leisure and travel … around the world.”
While COVID-19 hit Hopper and the overall travel industry hard, the company has learned lessons and is optimistic about its future. Its app has around 70 million downloads to date with Techcrunch reporting it saw more than $2 billion in travel sales last year.
Hopper currently has its strongest presence in North America but has plans to grow its presence in Latin America and Europe. Hopper is also working to get licensed in Asia to allow it to start growing a presence there.
“We are currently experiencing a travel supercycle, and despite the pandemic’s impact on the travel industry, Hopper has emerged stronger than ever,” Lalonde told BetaKit. “This secondary is not only an indication of our position in the market, but an opportunity for our employees who are the reason for the success we are seeing today. This move allows Hopper employees liquidity without having to wait for a potential IPO.”
UPDATE 03/02/2022: This article has been updated with commentary from Hopper CEO and co-founder Frederic Lalonde.
Image courtesy Hopper.