GoEuro, Europe’s largest platform for planning and booking all rail, bus and air travels, has announced the closure of a Series B funding round totalling $45 million. The funding was led by Goldman Sachs and joined by new investors including Atomico, Yuri Milner and Tom Stafford, Sebastian Siemiatkowski (Klarna) and Ilkka Paananen (Supercell).
GoEuro now operates in a contiguous area of 11 countries across Europe with a combined population of 400 million, offering its users the ability to search and book the fastest, cheapest, and most convenient journeys with over 40 railway companies, over 300 bus operators and all airlines, while helping operators reach new customers from all over the world. The company is addressing a market where over €150 billion is spent yearly on travel across Europe, utilizing proprietary technology to present all rail, bus, air transportation options, thereby creating a single, unified source of information for all consumer travel needs.
CEO of the company Naren Shaam explained to Wired.co.uk last year that the idea on this project came to his mind while travelling: “After university I took the obligatory couple of months off and travelled around Europe. I knew the places I wanted to go, and many of them were off the beaten path. I couldn’t believe just how hard it was to plan my travel. Air was relatively easy, but to get information to on how to take buses and trains to my final destination was really difficult! I knew then that there had to be a better way so I started to make plans for GoEuro.”
The additional funding will enable the company to accelerate its growth through 2016 and beyond, with a focus on investment in new partner integrations, product development, continuing to attract the best talent to GoEuro, and customer acquisition both within Europe and globally.
Christopher Dawe, Co-Head of Goldman Sachs IP Private Investments – companies’s current investor – comments: “GoEuro has made impressive progress in bringing the last untapped market within the travel industry into the 21st century. With over 50k train and coach stations across Europe, yet no online solution to search and book travel in a similar manner to what already exists within the airline industry, we see a tremendous opportunity to fill the void by building the leading multi-modal travel platform.”
