Germany-headquartered travel experience provider GetYourGuide has secured €114m ($133m) in convertible note financing from investors including telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
Investment firm Searchlight Capital led the round, which was also backed by existing investors including KKR, Battery Ventures, Highland Europe, Spark Capital, Lakestar, Heartcore Capital and NGP Capital, the venture capital firm spun off by communication technology producer Nokia.
GetYourGuide operates an online platform where travellers can discover and book access to local experiences and tourism sites across 170 countries. It will spend the financing on product development as it prepares for an expected rebound for the tourism industry in the next two years.
Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “After the pandemic, people will travel again, and experiencing the sights and culture of the world’s iconic destinations will be what they crave the most.
“As the global tourism industry prepares to rebuild, GetYourGuide’s mission to give the whole world access to incredible experiences matters more than ever. This new financing is a vote of confidence in GetYourGuide’s readiness to lead the recovery of global tourism.”
LionTree, Latham & Watkins and Walder Wyss advised GetYourGuide on the deal, which boosted its overall funding to approximately $788m.
Vision Fund led the company’s $484m series E round in May 2019, investing alongside financial services firm Zürcher Kantonalbank’s Swisscanto Invest vehicle, Temasek, Lakestar, Korelya Capital and Heartcore Capital.
GetYourGuide had raised $75m in a 2017 series C round led by Battery Ventures that included existing backers NGP Capital (then known as Nokia Growth Partners) KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Europe and Sunstone Capital (then Sunstone Capital). Its earlier investors include ProFounders Capital.
