Travel booking app Hopper announced on Wednesday that it closed $100 million in Series D financing led by Canada-based OMERS Ventures, one of the primary investors in the company's last round back in 2016.
New investor Citi Ventures, as well as existing investors Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Accomplice, Brightspark Ventures, Investissement Québec and BDC Capital IT Venture Fund, participated in the round.
The new infusion of capital, which brings the company’s total funding to $184 million, will be used to expand Hopper’s market presence outside North America and continue its AI development.
Specifically, the company will be focusing on full-scale “launches” in international markets, Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde wrote in an email to BostInno. The first target market is Australia, which Lalonde said has seen a 290% YoY sales increase.
"While Hopper is available in 126 countries and has already seen tremendous growth in regions where we made improvements (like adding nearly 50 low cost carriers in Europe, and thereby becoming more price competitive in the market), we will be doubling down on that growth by translating the app, accepting foreign currencies, and focusing on local market pricing to make the app even better for our international users," Lalonde wrote.
The launches will also include ramping up the company's marketing efforts, with the expectation to accelerate growth in officially launched markets.
With regard to AI, Hopper said it will continue to expand its data science team, and will continue to strengthen its recommendation algorithm as increasingly large and reliable data sets become available.
"Most of our headcount growth will be focused on our primary locations, but you will certainly see new offices popping up in our target regions for international expansion," Lalonde added.
Hopper has a total of nearly 200 employees across its locations in Montreal, Canada, Cambridge, Mass., New York and Sofia, Bulgaria. A team of 50 people, primarily focused on product, data science and engineering, is based out of the Cambridge office near Kendall Square.
"In terms of growth milestones, we’re on track to hit $1 billion in sales," Lalonde concluded. "We see Hopper’s very real potential to be the go-to way to book travel on the phone, and this latest round of funding will help us further that goal."
