Hopper announced the receipt of an additional $96 million investment from Capital One Travel, strengthening the long-term cooperation between the two companies.
Capital One Travel invests $96 million in travel app Hopper
Previously, Capital One led the Series F round of the famous tour booking app startup Hopper in Canada, raising $170 million in March 2021.
“The company will use this new capital to drive growth in many areas, including launching new social commerce initiatives,” Hopper said in a statement to Forbes .
Although he declined to say how much of a stake Capital One owns in the company, Hopper said that “after a year of cooperation, both parties see a strong attraction to strengthen their relationship through this investment. “
Last year, Hopper and Capital One partnered to launch Capital One Travel, a Hopper-powered tour booking website that combines many cardholder benefits with fintech (financial technology) products such as price fixing, Refund when the price drops, as well as insurance even if the tour is canceled for any reason.
“Since its launch, Capital One Travel has increased tour bookings at a record rate, surpassing both industry growth and pre-pandemic volumes. More and more customers are returning to use Capital One Travel,” said Hopper.
With $4.5 billion in sales this year, Hopper claims to be the third-largest online travel agency in North America with nearly 80 million downloads of the company’s free apps.
The company grew during the COVID-19 pandemic because customers don’t know when their trips will be interrupted and don’t want to lose money on tour bookings, so they want to use one or more of the fintech refund solutions the company offers. go out. Nearly 60% of customers purchase at least one fintech product when booking a tour through the app.
The company is tight-lipped about its current value. “We are an unlisted company and do not want to disclose our valuation,” a Hopper spokesman said. “That said, compared to the most recent valuation, this is now up significantly on the back of the recent growth mentioned in the announcement.” Earlier this year, Forbes reported that Hopper was valued at $5 billion.
Although there is much speculation about an initial public offering (IPO) in the near future, Hopper declined to say exactly when. “There are currently no concrete plans for an IPO,” the company said. “We are currently focused on developing the Hopper app, along with fintech products, and growing the Hopper Cloud business. Hopper put all the profits into marketing to accelerate growth.”