Travel experience marketplace Headout Inc said it is eyeing expansion to 500 cities globally in the next two years with the additional $30 million (around Rs 225 crore) fundraise of Series B round led by its existing investor Glade Brook Capital.
The round also saw participation from existing investors including Nexus Venture Partners, FJ Labs and 500 Startups along with Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety, Ankit Sobti, CTO at Postman and Pratilipi CEO Ranjeet Pratap Singh, among others.
The latest fundraise brings Headout’s total Series B financing to $42 million (around Rs 315 crore). Earlier in September, the platform scooped up funding of $12 million (around Rs 90 crore) led by Glade Brook Capital.
The company will also use the fresh capital to set up new verticals for domestic short-haul travel and build new technology.
Headout claimed it is hiring across all roles and locations and is also actively pursuing acquisitions in travel, entertainment and augmented reality (AR) space.
The company which currently has over 150 employees also claimed it has adopted a zero-layoff strategy amid the Covid-triggered Omicron wave.
"With all of the previous raise still in our bank and our consistently profitable economics, we have all the firepower we need to focus on aggressive expansion worldwide and longer-term investments to aid broader recovery of all things IRL (in real life) experiences," said Varun Khona, Co-Founder of Headout.
Launched in 2014 by Varun Khona, Suren Sultania and Vikram Jit Singh, Headout claims to be a mobile-first marketplace for the curated travel experience like tours, events and local activities to travellers in 30 cities across locations like New York, Las Vegas, London, Dubai, Rome, Singapore, Paris and Barcelona.
Headout claims to have over $40 million in annual revenue run-rate, over $200 million in annualised sales and aims to reach $1 billion in annual sales in the next 24 months.
“Now, more than ever, people crave in-person, local travel experiences. We believe Headout is building an exceptional platform to discover and book experiences. Glade Brook is excited to strengthen our partnership with Headout as we enter a multi-year travel supercycle,” Linda Guo, Partner at Glade Brook Capital said.
