Tripmakery.com, an innovative group travel booking platform, has announced a seven-figure investment in its latest round of funding, which plans to extend it in the coming months. The investment was led by venture capital firms ZAKA VC, Gateway Ventures, KFLT Angels and Seedblink, as well as by individual investor Jean-Pascal Duvieusart. This marks a significant milestone for the company, as it represents a considerable boost to Tripmakery.com’s growth and expansion plans.
Tripmakery.com aims to transform group bookings to make them seamless and efficient for travellers planning trips with more than ten people. Traditional online travel platforms can only sometimes efficiently create group bookings, leaving customers to deal with the difficult task of manually coordinating bookings. Recognising this gap in the market, Tripmakery.com has developed a unique group booking API that enables direct hotel bookings.
“We are delighted with the growth Tripmakery.com has achieved since its inception,” said Robert Sasse, co-founder of Tripmakery.com. “Our personal experience travelling in large groups has inspired us to tackle the challenges of group hotel bookings. Today, thousands of customers rely on our platform monthly, and we see strong demand from school classes, businesses, sports clubs and other travel groups.“
Founded in 2016, Tripmakery.com has made significant strides in the travel industry. The company has survived the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and has seen impressive growth year after year. In its inaugural year, Tripmakery.com processed 6,000 group enquiries from the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and generated a turnover of via the portal €600,000 (GMV). In the last 12 months, these figures have climbed to 60,000 group enquiries and an impressive €10.3 million (GMV).
“What we particularly like about our portfolio company Tripmakery – in addition to the excellent team – were the impressive growth figures and the strong competitive position. Tripmakery’s business development to date confirms our original assessment that we presented a good startup to our investors,” said Andreas Boue, Head of Investment at Gateway Ventures.
With over 20,000 users per month and a steady growth rate of 10 – 15% month-on-month, Tripmakery.com has built a solid user base. The recent investment will be used to expand the platform’s hotel offerings and prepare for expansion into markets outside the DACH region. The company aims to grow by 2-3 fold each year and plans to make its services available across Europe within the next two years. In addition, Tripmakery.com intends to launch in North America and Asia by 2025, strengthening its position as the leading global platform for group hotel bookings.
“The group accommodation market is massive and it has no significant leader yet. The demand for the digitization of this part of the travel industry is very high, as evidenced by significant organic growth of Tripmakery. We believe that the team has what it takes to strengthen their position in the DACH region, expand into other parts of the world and become a clear leader in their category.” said Jan Kasper, co-founder of ZAKA VC and an entrepreneur with many years of experience in the travel industry.
The company’s founder also hinted that a second investment round is planned to close in the near future, which will allow for further expansion and faster integration of hotel APIs. These investments are intended to strengthen the company’s capital base and enable it to grow faster.
