With an end-to-end travel platform that books everything from flights and accommodation to exciting experiences, London-based Journee has just picked up €2 million in Seed funding.
For many of us around the world, booking a trip and packing our bags to go on vacation is one of life’s joys. But what about when you have that itch to travel but don’t know where to go, or what to do when you get there? Or what about when you and your travel partner can’t meet eye to eye on the decision?
Well, taking the choice out of travellers’ hands, UK-based Journee has developed a pioneering platform that matches people with experiential trips to mystery destinations. The startup has just secured about €2 million in a seed round led by Fuel Ventures and with angel investment from Depop’s founder, Simon Beckerman, and CEO, Maria Raga.
As the world opens back up and people’s appetite for international travel returns, Journee is helping the culturally curious discover unknown destinations. As well as its matchmaking capabilities, Journee uses its technology to manage the booking process end-to-end – from how to get there and where to stay to what to do when you arrive. This summer, it has already been noted how travel prices have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels (if not even higher), so the company are entering a lucrative space with a very unique product.
Founded in 2019 by three friends and former Depop colleagues with a passion for travel, Ed Tribe, Megha Chaturvedi and James Gillard, the vision is to bring curious travellers new places and cultures to explore – without burdening already busy lives with tons of research on where to go and what to book.
Ed Tribe, Journee’s co-founder explained: “Our daily lives are busy with too many things on our to-do-lists. The process of booking a trip can be tedious and by the time you’ve decided on the destination and found the flights and hotel, most people are out of steam. Planning exciting things to do while you are away falls to the wayside. We have created a way to make it unbelievably easy to book an adventure you never knew you needed. And as we want our travellers to embrace the unknown, we don’t tell them where they’re going until they get to the airport!”
The traveltech firm’s smart technology matches any person with their ideal trip using information gathered from a single questionnaire. Journee’s matchmaking technology is focused on delivering convenience to the consumer – reducing the time consumers take to plan and book a trip from 10-30 hours to just 15 minutes.
Already, the company has recorded more than 1.5k bookings to over 52 mystery destinations and has a 4.9 rating on Trustpilot. With today’s investment and plans to grow their customer base and destinations list, Journee wants to make it as easy as possible to book the adventure of a lifetime by delivering an experience better than anyone could book on their own.
Maria Raga, angel investor and CEO of Depop, added: “We were lucky to get to know Ed, Megha and James while they were at Depop and were impressed with their entrepreneurial spirit. They have a vision to make the world a better place by expanding people’s capacity to explore new cultures and have incredible travel experiences. I am excited to be supporting the Journee team’s ambitions in changing how people travel.”
