Funding to travel tech startups skyrocketed in 2015. Piggybacking off a healthy 2015, the travel tech space saw the third-highest amount of funding by quarter in Q1’16 (despite a sharp decline in deal count).
We used CB Insights data and analytics to dig into the data surrounding travel tech investment trends, including deals and dollar breakdowns, and most well-funded companies.
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.
Deals and dollars
Travel tech startups raised $867M across 51 deals in Q1’16, (the lowest deals total since Q4’14). While the quarter saw a significant drop in deal count, it also marked a strong recovery in funding, up 133%, after the plunge in Q4’15. That points to a quarter that saw relatively few, but very large deals on average
In fact, the three largest travel tech deals in Q1’16 accounted for 62% of funding. Each of the three deals took went to startups based outside the US: India-based Ibibo Group, Scotland-based Skyscanner, and China-based Travelzen.
Most well-funded startups
Two of the the top 10 most well-funded travel tech startups have raised more than $1B in total funding to date.
The list includes notable unicorns like Airbnb, TuJia, and South America-based flight- and hotel-booking site Decolar. Several of the most well-funded companies on our list raised in Q1’16, including India-based Ibibo Group and Scotland-based Skyscanner (the latter is also on our unicorn list).
| Rank | Company | Total Disclosed Funding ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AirBnB | $2.3B |
| 2 | LY.com | $1.2B |
| 3 | TuJia Online Information Technology | $464M |
| 4 | Decolar | $291M |
| 5 | Ibibo Group | $273M |
| 6 | Skyscanner | $192M |
| 7 | HotelUrbano | $130M |
| 8 | Oyo Rooms | $126M |
| 9 | Zhubaijia | $109M |
| 10 | Mafengwo | $105M |
Want more travel tech data? Check out our venture capital database below.
This report was created with data from CB Insights’ emerging technology insights platform, which offers clarity into emerging tech and new business strategies through tools like:
- Earnings Transcripts Search Engine & Analytics to get an information edge on competitors’ and incumbents’ strategies
- Patent Analytics to see where innovation is happening next
- Company Mosaic Scores to evaluate startup health, based on our National Science Foundation-backed algorithm
- Business Relationships to quickly see a company’s competitors, partners, and more
- Market Sizing Tools to visualize market growth and spot the next big opportunity