The State of Early-Stage Travel Startups: Where Investments Went in 2015
Photo Credit: Many investors believe that travel booking startups like Pillow, a vacation rental metasearch site, have some of the most potential in 2016. Pillow
Skift Take
Some entrepreneurs are subject to so much tunnel vision that they can't see when it's time to either pivot or give up. The themes of pivoting to B2B and targeting the vacation and short-term rental space are commonplace and it's realities like these that investors impress upon startups every day. Everyone trying to do the same thing without differentiating creates a lack of ambition, a sentiment shared by some investors we recently spoke to.
Travel startups attracted billions of dollars in funding last year, and the travel booking sector attracted some of the most investment -- more than $650 million.
Skift has tracked travel startup funding over the last year and found that startups involved with helping travelers book hotels, alternative accommodations, and air travel garnered the most funding of any travel sector and the most individual investments.
By Skift's count, there were at least 50 separate investments made in travel booking startups in 2015 with India's Tuija and Oyo Rooms receiving some of the largest single investments at $300 million and $100 million, respectively. Ground transportation startups were next, receiving a collective $444 million, and these included peer-to-peer on-demand ride and car-pooling apps.
We didn't include the huge funding rounds for existing companies like Uber, Lyft, GrabTaxi, and Didi Kuaidi in that total as we wanted to illustrate what's happening with smaller mobile on
