Hopper, a Canada-based travel and accommodation booking platform backed by financial services firms Capital One and Citi, has raised $175m in a series G round.
Asset manager GPI Capital led the round and was joined by growth equity firms Glade Brook Capital and WestCap, as well as venture capital firm Accomplice and investment bank Goldman Sachs’ growth equity unit, Goldman Sachs Growth.
The series G round has valued Hopper at over $3.5bn according to a TechCrunch report.
Founded in 2007, Hopper operates a mobile-based marketplace platform for booking airline flights, accommodation and rental cars. The company’s platform leverages artificial intelligence, data and machine learning algorithms to predict hotel and flight prices.
Hopper will use the new funding to bolster growth across the business including its customer support division. It also plans to hire 500 employees, of which 300 will focus on customers service.
The series G round has increased Hopper’s overall funding to $610m. Capital One led its $170m series F round in March this year, when Citi Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Citi, Goldman Sachs Growth, iNovia Capital and WestCap also invested.
It picked up $70m in a May 2020 round led by WestCap and featuring Business Development of Canada (BDC), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Investissement Québec, iNovia Capital and Omers.
Citi Ventures also contributed to a $100m series D round for the business in 2018 that was led by Omers’ venture capital arm, Omers Ventures, and included Accomplice, BDC Capital’s IT Venture Fund, Brightspark Ventures, CDPQ and Investissement Québec.