Welcome Pickups Raises $5.6 Million for Personalized Taxi Rides
Photo Caption: Welcome Pickups offers personalized airport pickups and taxi rides. Welcome Pickups
Skift Take
The taxi drivers of Welcome Pickups double as tour guides, while Cabana is offering vacation rentals in high-tech camper vans and Customcells wants to create a next-generation battery for airplanes.
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at jd@skift.com if you have funding news.Five tech startups in the travel industry have raised $258.6 in venture capital this week.
>>Welcome Pickups has secured $5.6 million (€5.3 million) from existing investors Market One Capital, Flashpoint, and Venture Friends.
Greece-based Welcome Pickups provides customized car transportation for travelers. Services include airport pickups that start with meeting the driver at the airport, as well as sightseeing tours, and a taxi service bookable online.
The funding will go toward the goal of doubling the company’s destination network, focusing primarily on North and South America. It will also go toward improving customer service and developing new products.
Welcome Pickups now serves 100 locations worldwide, including 33 added in 2022. The goal is to reach 400 by the end of 2024.
More than 1 million travelers used the service in 2022, and the company saw a 50 percent increase in business during that time. Welcome Pickups said it h
