Hopper raises $100M more for its AI-based travel app, now valued at $780M –
Summary
There are a sea of travel apps in the market today that help people search for and book trips, from old standbys like Expedia/Travelocity and Booking.com, through to newer upstarts like Airbnb and smaller startups that have been snapped up by bigger players (such as Hipmunk, now owned by SAP/Concur, and Kayak, acquired by Booking.com/Priceline for $1.8 billion). Hopper has carved out a distinct place for itself by building an AI framework that not only helps people find good deals, but also discover trips they may have not known that they specifically wanted to take. “We’re able to capture our users’ intent in an unprecedented way in the industry because users start watching their trips four to five months in advance of departure,” said Lalonde in an emailed interview (and pictured here with his cofounder Joost Ouwerkerk). “What once was done by a human travel agent is now done through a machine that gets smarter each time an action is (or is not) taken.” AI, as you probably know, is a term that is thrown around a lot today, but it has a very direct relationship to how Hopper has grown its business. By continuing to innovate on mobile and ultimately change the way consumers plan and book travel, we believe Hopper has a tremendous opportunity globally,” said Damien Steel, Managing Partner at OMERS Ventures, in a statement.