Global ‘tailor-made holidays’ brand set to expand with seven-figure funding round

As part of Bdaily’s coverage of World Tourism Day, we hear from Puma Private Equity, a provider of growth capital to SMEs, which has led the £8.3m series B investment round into a global ‘tailor-made holidays’ brand and managed marketplace, TravelLocal.

Existing investors, Active Partners and Gresham House Ventures also participated in the round and the investment will help to accelerate the company’s international growth.

TravelLocal is a global brand and receives bookings from clients worldwide, as a managed marketplace. It is growing rapidly, as travellers demand genuinely authentic, more sustainable holidays and prioritise spending on experiences, annual bookings are over USD 50m and are growing over 100 per cent year on year.

The new additional funding will support the company’s international growth, including investment in its managed marketplace platform and further brand marketing, including broadcasting its latest TV advert “Global Travel, Local Experts”.

TravelLocal’s ‘innovative’ model seeks to ‘revolutionise tailor-made holidays’, by connecting its customers directly with handpicked, trusted local travel experts based on their destination. Since the business was founded in 2016, TravelLocal has helped more than 70,000 customers create the ‘perfect trip’.

The TravelLocal platform enables bookings with over 500 individual local travel experts around the world, who create truly personalised itineraries directly with and for the client. They work in 271 curated partner companies and are the ‘hidden stars’ of the legacy travel industry, to whom clients now have direct access by booking with TravelLocal.

This Series B funding round follows the highly successful merger in July 2021 of TravelLocal (UK) and Trip.me (Germany), both now fully integrated under the TravelLocal brand. TravelLocal has offices in Bristol and Berlin with colleagues also working remotely across the world.

Mark Lyons, investment director, Puma Private Equity, said: “Although incomes are being squeezed in the current environment, travel continues to be a priority expenditure for many and baby boomers are spending $120bn annually on leisure travel. We believe there is huge scope for TravelLocal to grow and continue transforming the tailor-made holiday industry.

Tom Stapleton, CEO, TraveLocal commented: “TravelLocal has performed very strongly again coming out of the pandemic as people travel extensively, and increasingly with a strong desire to do so in a more sustainable, meaningful way, that supports local people and economies. Our unique business model enables everyone to do just that.”

“This funding round reflects the excellent growth opportunity we now have, and the first class team we have built to tackle it.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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