UK-based SafariDeal has raised €58.9K in an equity seed funding round on the Seedrs platform from 55 investors. Having smashed its original target, the startup’s campaign is still open in overfunding mode until 31 January.
The new capital will be used on marketing efforts, as well as enhancing the platform to load content quicker, reconcile enquiries faster and streamline payments.
SafariDeal, founded in 2017, is aimed at travellers looking to find inspirational travel experiences that involve wildlife, from worldwide responsible travel partners. Safari style trips have always been more complicated to book and using a specialist tour operator has been key. Trying to find the right travel partner to work with has also meant hours of online research. SafariDeal brings together worldwide travel partners into one easy to use platform where travellers can quickly filter results to find their ideal safari.
The startup launched onto the travel stage at World Travel Market in November of 2017. Since then the platform has signed up over 440 travel partners from 44 destinations and that is growing at a rate of five signups per week. These travel partners have loaded 557 live itineraries and that number is set to increase exponentially over the next 3 months.
SafariDeal believes that responsible safari tourism is vital to wildlife conservation efforts, from ongoing management of land, to education on a global level. For this cycle to work it is important for governments to create and protect wildlife reserves, responsible operators to set up ethical safari tourism businesses, local communities to be involved and a global safari community to actively participate.