Overall funding to travel tech startups hit $5.2B in 2015 through 12/21/15, which was up 125% over full-year 2014 funding to the space. The year also brought an upswing in travel tech exit activity.
According to CB Insights data, the year saw 15 travel tech exits globally, with 14 M&A transactions, and 1 IPO (Chinese ticket booking and tour services startup Lvmama). That compares to 11 exits (including 3 IPOs) in the previous year.
We defined travel tech as tech-enabled companies offering services and products focused on tourism, including booking services, search and planning platforms, on-demand travel, and recommendation sites. Car-hailing services are excluded.
Annual exit trends
Looking at the annual trend, travel tech exits have risen since 2011, with the top year for exits being 2013, with 16 exits.
Travel tech exits in the 2010 to 2015 period leaned toward the US market, which accounted for 54% of all exit activity.
The period’s exits have been dominated by M&A deals, while IPOs account for just 14% of exits. Despite this, the last two years have seen 4 IPOs through 2015, which is the same amount of IPOs of the last 3 years combined.
Most Well-funded Companies Before Exit
Based on disclosed funding, HomeAway was the most well-funded venture-backed travel tech exit to date. Rounding out the top 3 spots are travel search engine Kayak Software and ticket booking site Lvmama, also mentioned above.
| Rank | Company | Total Funding ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | HomeAway | $495.5 |
| 2 | Kayak Software | $224.5 |
| 3 | Lvmama | $144 |
| 4 | Tuniu | $113.5 |
| 5 | Qunar | $82 |
Largest exits
Based on disclosed valuations, below are the top 5 travel tech exits since 2011. 4 out of 5 companies exited for over $1B+ with HomeAway leading the way with their $2.1B exit in June 2011. China-based Qunar made the number two spot with Germany-based Trivago rounding out the top 3 spot.
See the top 5 list below.
| Rank | Company | Date Of Exit | Valuation ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HomeAway | 6/6/2011 | $ 2,155 |
| 2 | Qunar | 6/27/2011 | $ 1,200 |
| 3 | Trivago | 3/13/2013 | $ 1,026 |
| 4 | Kayak Software | 7/20/2012 | $ 1,016 |
| 5 | Viator | 8/11/2014 | $ 200 |
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