17 Travel Startups Raise $636 Million in 3 Weeks
Skift Take
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.Travel startups have raised nearly a billion dollars so far in November.
Seventeen travel companies raised nearly $636 million in the last three weeks. That's on top $318 million earlier this month for flying taxi startup Beta Technologies, plus some smaller fundraises.
The most significant so far this month — and all year for a software company — was Lighthouse which raised $370 million for its hotel tech platform.
Some of the main funding themes have continued, with deal for three electrified transport companies, several airline and hotel tech startups, and a handful of tech providers for tour operators.
Lighthouse: $370 MillionLighthouse, which provides hotel tech for pricing, promotion, and distribution, has raised $370 million in series C funding.
Investment firm KKR led the round, with support from Spectrum Equity, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, and Highgate Technology Ventures.
The startup raised $80 million in 2021.
London-based Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) uses AI to process and analyze market data to help hotels and short-term rentals with commercial decisions.
The funding will go toward expansion, acquisitions, and strengthening the product.
(Read Skift’s story.)
Vertical Aerospace: $50 MillionVertical Aerospace, which is developing a flying taxi, has secured a funding commitment of up to $50 million from Mudrick Capital.
It includes $25 million in upfront funding and an additional $25 million backstop, meaning Mudrick will pay the second half if Vertical Aerospace is unable to raise it from other sources. Stephen Fitzpatrick, may also invest an additional $25 million on similar terms.
The transaction converts $130 million in convertible notes into equity at $2.75 per share, reducing debt and fixing the conversion price of remaining notes at $3.50 per share. Loan repayments have been extended to December 2028.
London-based Vertical Aerospace is developing an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The design, called VX4, is for four passengers and one pilot. The plan is that it will complete trips of up to 100 miles at a speed of up to 150 miles per hour.
Fitzpatrick earlier this year invested $50 million to provide the startup enough cash to continue operations until the second quarter of 2025.
