Multi-mode travel website GoEuro has today announced that it has received a “multi-million dollar” investment from Lakestar (Update – May 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link).
In addition to Lakestar, GoEuro has also welcomed Charles Petruccelli, former President of Global Business Travel for American Express, as a new investor. The investment will be used to accelerate GoEuro’s expansion to seven markets by summer 2014, firmly establishing it as a market leader in multi-mode travel search within Europe.
The Berlin-based startup GoEuro is changing the travel planning experience by helping users find the most efficient way to travel. Travellers can plan routes from towns and villages, and then compare and combine air, rail and coach travel in a single search, thus eliminating the need to visit multiple websites to plan their entire journey. Since its launch in the summer of 2013, GoEuro has experienced significant growth, expanding from its initial market of Germany into the UK and Spain, offering complete air, rail and coach coverage in all three countries. The company has signed a number of high-profile and mutually successful agreements with partners such as National Express in the UK and Renfe in Spain. This announcement also marks the company’s exit from beta in its existing markets.
GoEuro now features 150 airports, 12,900 rail, and 8,500 bus stations, serving almost 23,000 unique locations in the UK, Spain and Germany. In only six months since its launch, over 10,000 of these unique locations have featured in customer search results, demonstrating not only the reach of GoEuro’s product, but also the desire of users to embrace local travel search beyond just airports.
Naren Shaam, CEO of GoEuro, said: “The Lakestar team brings to the company a strong background of B2C investment history and know-how including the likes of Airbnb, Spotify, Skype and Klarna. It is a vote of confidence not only for GoEuro but for the multi-mode travel space as a whole. Online travel has traditionally been dominated by websites focused on air, hotel and car rental, but the growing capability of rail and bus operators has opened the door to platforms which compare and combine rail, coach and air travel on one site. As a result, fully localised and natural search has become a reality and we’re confident GoEuro will be at the forefront of this market. We’ve seen tremendous acceptance from our customers in all three countries, with particularly strong growth over recent months in the UK and our newest market, Spain.”
Klaus Hommels, Partner at Lakestar, said: “When I first met the GoEuro team, I was amazed at their ability to build relationships with large organisations that historically have not given out proprietary information. By building these relationships, they are breaking down a huge barrier to entry and making themselves the market leader by quite a distance. We feel very positive about GoEuro as it joins our portfolio of investments in extremely innovative companies.”
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