Searchlight leads €114m convertible note round for GetYourGuide

Harriet Matthews
30 October 2020

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Searchlight Capital has led a €114m convertible note round for tour guide business GetYourGuide.

The GP was joined in the round by GetYourGuide's existing investors SoftBank Vision Fund, KKR, Battery Ventures, Highland Capital Partners Europe, Spark Capital, Lakestar, Heartcore Capital and NGP Capital.

GetYourGuide's founding team have also committed to the round.

Searchlight has had a relationship with the company for around two years and was keen to invest in the travel tech sector. The GP has invested via Searchlight Capital III, which held an interim close in May 2020 on more than $3bn. The fund makes both equity and debt investments, generally in the region of $100-200m.

Although the travel and tourism sector has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic, GetYourGuide intends to continue to invest in strategic initiatives and in the development of its platform, according to a statement.

Previous funding
GetYourGuide raised a seed round of $500,000 in 2009.

ProFounders Capital led a $2m funding round for the business in March 2012, joined by Swisscanto Invest, NFQ Capital and several business angels.

Spark Capital and Highland Europe subsequently backed a $14m series-A funding round for GetYourGuide in January 2013.

Business angels Kees Koolen, the former CEO of Booking.com, and Fritz Demopoulos, the founder of Qunar.com, joined the company's investor base in January 2014, leading a $4.5m series-A extension. Also backing the round was Heartcore Capital (then known as Sunstone Capital).

Spark Capital and Highland Europe backed a $25m series-B round for the business in August 2014.

In November 2015, KKR led a $50m round for the company, joined by existing investors Spark Capital, Highland Europe and Sunstone, as well as new backer Nokia Growth Partners.

Battery Ventures led a $75m series-D round in November 2017. Existing investors KKR, Spark Capital, Highland Europe, Sunstone and Nokia Growth also invested.

In May 2019, SoftBank led a series-E funding round for GetYourGuide, investing via its Vision Fund, marking the company's largest financing round to date. Investors including Temasek, Lakestar, Korelya Capital, Heartcore Capital, Swisscanto Invest and Highland Europe also backed the round. The company's valuation reportedly stood at $1bn at the time of the round.

Company
Founded in 2009 and based in Berlin, GetYourGuide operates an online platform for booking tickets for travel and tourism activities. The company employs 550 people and has offices in 14 further countries beyond Germany.

People
GetYourGuide – Johannes Reck (CEO, co-founder).
Searchlight Capital – Eric Zinterhofer (partner).
KKR – Philipp Freise (partner).
Battery Ventures – Itzik Parnafes (general partner).
SoftBank – Ted Fike (partner).
Highland Capital Partners Europe – Fergal Mullen (partner).