Tour Packages and Digital Tipping: Startups Raise $104 Million

27.07.2024 - 12:43 / skift.com / Justin Dawes

The three startups in the list this week represent modern takes on old ways of doing business in three travel sectors: tour packages, timeshares, and hospitality tipping.

Each of those areas have been particularly slow at modernizing, and the growth of the businesses highlighted shows that there’s demand to do so.

The three startups this week announced fundraises totaling more than $104 million.

Exoticca, a platform that sells multi-day tour packages, has raised $65.1 million (€60 million) in series D funding. 

Quadrille Capital led the round, with support from All Iron, ICF, 14W, Mangrove, Bonsai, Sabadell, and Aldea. The company raised its last round of $30 million in 2021.

Barcelona-based Exoticca said its tech provides connections to flights, hotels, meals, transfers, transportation, and activities all in one place. That allows the company to sell complex packages based on real-time pricing and availability, which it claims reduces prices by 30% compared to booking different parts of a trip individually.

The platform offers more than 70 destinations in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Colombia, and Mexico.

“While the rest of the travel industry has become digitized, the multi-day tour space has remained stagnant, with customers stuck with inconsistent, time-consuming booking experiences. Exoticca’s mission is to bring multi-day tour packages into the digital age, making dream trips accessible and affordable to everyone,” said Pere Vallès, CEO of Exoticca, in a statement.

The funding will go toward enhancing the platform with AI, improving the customer experience, expanding into new markets, and gaining new clients. 

The platform also includes a concierge app for monitoring and customer service related to all the products included in a package. 

Not a Hotel, which sells partial ownership of vacation homes in Japan, has raised $35 million in series B funding. 

The startup operates by selling customers a portion of a vacation home, which translates into a certain number of nights they can book at the property, from 30 nights to a full year. Customers can also book nights at other vacation homes within the portfolio. Bookings are made through an app.

The company projects that it will generate about $650 million (100 billion yen) in sales over the next two years.

Since it started four years ago, the company has secured $148 million (22.7 billion yen) in contracts, signed 597 customers, and opened nine locations. 

Grazzy, a software product for digital tipping, has raised $4 million in a second seed round. 

Next Coast Ventures led the round, with support from AZ-VC, InRevenue Capital, Iron Skillet Partners, and Tuesday Capital. The company raised its first seed round in 2023.

Texas-based