Tour Packages and Digital Tipping: Startups Raise $104 Million

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: $65.1 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: $35 Million

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: $4 Million

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 Grazzy allows guests to pay tips digitally by scanning a QR code, which can be connected to an individual, a team, a room, or a floor. Workers receive same-day payouts along with tax information. 

Grazzy was approved for use at hotels under all four major brands: Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, and IHG. Hotels are able to integrate the product with their main tech systems. 

“We’re meeting a seriously understaffed market with a solution that can truly deliver more money, more often to front-line employees,” said Russell Lemmer, founder of CEO of Grazzy, in a statement. “On the Grazzy platform, we’ve moved millions of dollars directly to thousands of worker wallets. And we did that while saving our enterprise customers thousands of dollars a month in recruitment and retention costs.” 

The startup said it grew its customer base 100 times in the last 18 months. 

The funding will go toward hiring, adding new customers, scaling partnerships, and strengthening the product. 

Skift Cheat Sheet

Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.

Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.

Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster. These fundraising rounds can assist in recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.

Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.

Series D, E, and, beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.

Photo Credit: Pictured: The Algarve region at the southern end of Portugal. Exoticca offers a trip package in Algarve.