Germany-based tourism booking service GetYourGuide is raising a large sum of money in a round that may include telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The news comes after a Deutsche Startups report on Sunday stating that SoftBank had invested €500m ($556m) at a valuation of almost $1.8bn, but a GetYourGuide spokesperson subsequently told TechCrunch the report was inaccurate, though they did not dispute any individual details.
Founded in 2009, GetYourGuide operates an online platform where tourists can discover local attractions in the city they are visiting and then book tickets through the company. It receives 20 million unique visitors a month, Skift reported earlier this month.
The company was reported by Sky News in March this year to be raising $300m in a series E round that would be led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, with Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek set to invest $50m.
GetYourGuide had already received more than $170m in funding, most recently securing $75m in a late 2017 series D round led by investment firm Battery Ventures that included NGP Capital, the venture capital firm spun off from communications technology producer Nokia.
The series D round also featured KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Europe and Sunstone Capital, all four of which had joined NGP in the company’s $50m series C round in 2015.
