After taking a sledgehammer to salaries during the pandemic, Travello is now 7 times larger than it was in 2019, and has banked its largest capital raise to-date.
Travello, a travel startup that helps like-minded travelers connect and discover tours and activities, has raised $5 million ($6.5 million Australian) in a Series A round of funding.
The Australia-based startup attracted several investors, such as Jim Goldburg, the co-founder of travel agency giant Flight Centre, and Andrew McEvoy, the former boss of Tourism Australia.
The company’s acquisition of tours-and-activities booking service Backpacker Deals in October 2020 played a part in its shift in business models from being a “community with an online travel agency” to “an online travel agency with a community,” said co-founder and CEO Ryan Hanly
The company, which raised about $4 million ($5 million Australian) in 2018, has 1.2 million members of all ages. But it has especially drawn a younger audience that tends to find and discover “things to do” mainly through recommendations from peers rather than sites like TripAdvisor, Hanly said.