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Travel tech firm Hopper raises $170 million, gears up for vacation boom

Hopper, a travel-tech company based in Boston and Montreal, said Wednesday that it has raised $170 million in new venture capital, a sign that investors are betting on some form of travel returning in the near future.

Hopper’s travel-focused app uses an algorithm powered by artificial intelligence to make pricing predictions and travel recommendations for users. Over the past year, following a $70 million funding round last spring, employees at Hopper have been building out several aspects of its travel app as the company tries to emerge from the pandemic stronger. Hopper created a feature for car rentals and added a new process for cancellations and booking changes.

The funding is part of Hopper’s new partnership with Capital One to power the Capital One Travel platform, which will use the startup’s technology to help cardholders book flights, hotels, and cars. This feature is expected to debut in the second half of the year.

Hopper was founded in 2007 but did not launch its travel app until years later. For a brief period, the company pumped the brakes on its original idea of building a tool to suggest vacation ideas, spending time focused on mobile airfare-shopping instead.

Although the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the travel industry, it appears Hopper was able to withstand the hit. After being one of the first companies to cut employees last March, Hopper reported triple-digit revenue growth last year, and over the past two quarters it has grown its customer service team by 180 percent to meet growing demand for its services.

“Although last year was the most challenging year the travel industry has ever faced, our team at Hopper has never felt more confident in our future,” said Frederic Lalonde, cofounder and chief executive of Hopper, in a blog post.

The latest round of funding was led by Capital One with participation from GS Growth, Inovia Capital, WestCap Group, and Citi Ventures.

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Anissa Gardizy can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @anissagardizy8 and on Instagram @anissagardizy.journalism .

Hopper Raises Another $175M as Travel Rebounds, Plans to Hire 500

While the Delta variant has raised some questions about travel’s recent rebound, Hopper thinks its increasingly popular fintech products will help the industry not only weather the storm, but create a very profitable new sector. The company is now hiring, with more than 100 open tech positions at its Boston HQ.

As the travel industry continues its post-vaccine rebound, Hopper has just announced it closed on a $175 million Series G round led by GPI Capital. This fresh funding comes just five months after the popular travel app raised its $170 million Series F , and brings its total valuation to a reported $3.5 billion.

While the larger industry was among the hardest hit by the pandemic, Hopper was one of the few tech companies in the space to have actually thrived in the last year. The company’s revenue tripled in 2020, and its platform managed to exceed its pre-pandemic user levels. This year, Hopper says it is on track to grow its revenue by 330 percent, and it has already surpassed its pre-pandemic revenue peak from Q1 of 2020.

Much of this recent success is attributed to the line of fintech products Hopper released just a few months before the pandemic. These AI-powered tools allow for things like price freezing, flexible date planning and cross-airline rebooking for missed flights — features that give travelers more flexibility and control over their itineraries. The company also recently partnered with Capital One to launch the Hopper Cloud, which allows any travel provider (airlines, travel agencies, etc.) to integrate Hopper’s fintech services into their own system.

“People have realized that, while getting a great price is important, making sure that you have the right flexibility and the right company behind your trip is also really important,” Dakota Smith, Hopper’s chief strategy officer,  told Built In in an interview last June. “I think that will be one lasting change from the pandemic for the travel industry.”

Of course, the elephant in the room here is the Delta variant, as well as all the other coronavirus variants that will inevitably follow. With COVID-19 cases surging again, will people continue to feel comfortable traveling? Hopper’s CEO and co-founder Fred Lalonde seems to think so. He recently told TechCrunch that the company has “not seen an incremental impact” on its domestic bookings, and added that the app has seen an increased demand for its flexible booking products in recent weeks.

The success of Hopper’s fintech products shows that travelers are willing to pay extra for the luxury of choice and flexibility, explained Lalonde in a statement, which could help “supercharge the travel industry’s recovery.” In fact, he estimates that, if all travel distribution channels offered the company’s fintech products, it would increase the total consumer spend for the sector by $200 billion annually.

This could create a very profitable emerging tech sector that was not lost on GPI Capital.

“Hopper has created a large market opportunity with unique fintech products for the travel industry that applies an entirely differentiated and attractive business model,” Khai Ha, a managing partner at the investment firm, said in a statement. “The company emerged from a challenging period for the industry, bolstering its technology capabilities, customer service and its opportunity set with a stronger, durable foundation. We are thrilled to be a partner in this category-defining story.”

Looking ahead, Hopper says much of this fresh funding will be used to grow its team, particularly in customer support roles. The company aims to hire 500 new employees in the coming months, and has more than 100 open tech positions available at its Boston headquarters.

Also in Boston These 4 Companies Just Made Forbes’ Cloud 100, and Most Are Hiring

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Gearing up for your summer vacation ? Here's how much it'll cost you to fly.

Travel platform Hopper is out with its 2024 Summer Travel Outlook. Hopper says the average price for domestic flights in June, July, and August is $305 per ticket. That's down 6% from this time last year – and the first time since 2020 that prices have dropped compared to the previous year.

If you haven't booked your trip , Hopper says you should do so as soon as possible because prices are expected to rise over the coming weeks. The most expensive time to fly will be the weekend before the 4th of July, costing an average of $347. You'll also see price spikes around Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day weekends.

Hopper also says the average price for a hotel stay during June, July, and August is $240 per night, while the average price for rental cars is $46 per day.

To get the best deals on travel, it's recommended you book 2 to 3 months in advance for a domestic trip, and 3-5 months in advance for an international one.

To view the full report and find more ways to save, click here .

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Travel over Memorial Day holiday weekend expected to be busiest in years

by KOMO Staff

SEATTLE (KOMO) — The unofficial start of summer is almost here. But this year, the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend could be the third-busiest in about 23 years, according to AAA.

"The desire to travel is high," AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. "It's back to what it was pre-pandemic."

According to AAA, more than 42 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home this Memorial Day holiday weekend. That's a 7% increase over last year.

Nearly 3.5 million of them will choose to fly, per AAA. That's an 11% increase from 2022.

RELATED | Avoid the hassle: Here are the best times to hit the road Memorial Day weekend

And according to Hopper , many travelers will head to places like Las Vegas, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston. Cities like Paris, Tokyo, Rome, Hyderabad and Milan are trending travel destinations overseas, per Hopper.

More people feel comfortable flying now; more people are booking trips ahead of time," Diaz told ABC News. "And what that shows is that there's a demand for flights despite inflation.

Travelers staying in the U.S. over the Memorial Day holiday will pay "considerably less" than last year and even before the pandemic, experts told ABC News.

The cost for last-minute domestic airfare is averaging $275 per ticket, according to Hopper. That's about $100 cheaper than last year.

But roundtrip international tickets to places like Europe are up more than 50%. Average airfare costs are $1,300.

On the road

Gas prices have dropped significantly over the past 12 months.

According to GasBuddy, the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded is now about $3.50. That's down more than $1 from a year ago.

In Washington, the average cost for a gallon of regular unleaded is now $4.50, per GasBuddy. That's down more than 50 cents over the past year.

I would expect if you want to travel this summer, the highest prices will probably be on Memorial Day," GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis Patrick De Haan said. "But then by July 4, prices should be moderately lower. And then Labor Day weekend will probably be the cheapest of the 3 major summer holidays. And that has a lot to do with the fact that over the course of the summer, gasoline supply goes up and prices tend to go down.

If you're looking to take a last-minute trip over the upcoming holiday weekend, there's still time.

Booking two one-way fares instead of one round-trip can sometimes help you save cash, a Going expert told ABC News.

Also, see if booking your departure and return flights on different airlines will end up costing less.

And taking some extra time to see if flying out of an alternate airport can also save some cash, even if it takes more time to get there, the Going expert told ABC News.

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Where Bostonians are using points to travel to this summer

By Courtney Cole

May 10, 2024 / 9:46 PM EDT / CBS Boston

BOSTON - A point redemption website is looking at where Bostonians are planning to travel this summer. The results from the Point.me show there is a great divide when people are paying with frequent flyer points versus cash.

The point.me search engine looks at a person's credit card points and helps get the best redemption for travel.

Cashing in points  

Looking at 7.4 million searches locally, the website found most Bostonians wanted to cash in points for summer 2024 to travel to London, Paris, and Rome.

Gilbert Ott with Point.me says, "London in the summer the city really comes alive. You've got all the sporting events. You've got, Wimbledon. There's often some cricket, which is fun for lots of international crowds. The weather is briefly great."

Paying with cash  

Now the top destinations for summer 2024 changed when Point.me looked at what Bostonians searched for when they were paying for airline seats with cold hard cash. The top destinations were New York City, Las Vegas, and Dublin.

"I think New York is great," Ott said. "I personally think if you're going to go, end of summer is better than midsummer. Catch the US Open, Fashion Week and all the good things that happen in September."

Point.me finds most of their users who are cashing in points are trying to use them for business class where they can sleep in lie-flat seats and drink champagne before takeoff.

"I think people really love that idea of this dream state of if money didn't matter, and I could go somewhere special, and I didn't have to think about how much the flight costs, where would I go? And so, I think there's a lot of truth in where people want to go with their points tells us where people really want to go in general," said Ott.

If you are looking to cash in those miles, the website recommends you either book them really early or last minute. Airlines looking to sell off excess inventory can have great mileage redemptions within 72 hours of departure. 

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